Hawthorne Press Tribune The Weekly Newspaper of Hawthorne Herald Publications - Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lawndale, El Segundo, Torrance & Manhattan Beach Community Newspapers Since 1911 - Circulation 30,000 - Readership 60,000 (310) 322-1830 - March 9, 2017 Environmental Charter Schools Host Environmental Leadership Summit On February 25, Environmental Charter Schools (ECS)—which includes Environmental Charter High School (ECHS) in Lawndale and middle school campuses in Inglewood and Gardena—hosted a daylong training session addressing urban sustainability, transportation and pollution issues in Los Angeles. In one of the day’s activities, ECS Green Ambassadors Institute educators imagined the future of transportation in the urban landscape by biking through the streets of LA with the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition. In the photo, participants take a rest stop at the LA River bike trails. The bike group includes ECHS teachers Stephanie Drury (second from left), Jessica Diaz (fourth from left) and Sara Diaz (sixth from left). Laura Lindquist (far right) is a student at ECHS. (Photo by David Montejano Photography) California Has a Plan B If Obamacare Is Repealed By Rob McCarthy These are: outpatient services; emergency Few states embraced the Affordable Care services; hospitalization; maternity/newborn Act the way California did, starting in 2010 care; mental health and substance abuse with decisions by then-Governor Arnold services; prescription drugs; rehabilitation (for Schwarzenegger and lawmakers to expand injuries, disabilities or chronic conditions); lab Medi-Cal eligibility and open a healthcare services; preventive/wellness programs and exchange so residents could shop for their chronic disease management; and pediatric coverage plans. Nearly five million Californians services. Before 2010, insurers could offer became insured through Obamacare, the highest “cafeteria plans” that charged higher amounts number in the country. for some or all of the services that came with The national healthcare law fixed one giant Obamacare. problem, yet created another in the process. With members of Congress talking behind The uninsured rate for Americans who weren’t closed doors about a repeal of the Affordable covered through a work plan dipped into single Care Act and the expansion of the federal digits, achieving one goal of the healthcare Medicare system to the states, a Los Angeles law. The ranks of the newly insured paid what County state senator is ready with a Plan B they could afford for coverage, in some cases in case President Obama’s healthcare law is as little as a $1 per month or less if their dismantled. Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, incomes fell below the poverty line. Patients has introduced a single-payer health bill in with physical or mental illnesses suddenly had Sacramento to replace Obamacare and address access to treatment. runaway costs for diagnostics, treatment and However, a provision of Obamacare that pharmacy drugs that health insurers say is behind allowed young adults up to 26 to remain on their the run-up in insurance costs for individuals parents’ healthcare insurance had an unintended and their families. consequence. While young, healthy adults didn’t A single-payer system would be a replacement go uninsured, far fewer than anyone expected for Obamacare and consolidate several signed up at CoveredCA.com for individual plans. government plans into one. Proponents argue The architects of the health law had counted that single-payer systems make healthcare more on young adults to enroll rather than face a affordable and efficient, but opponents say they penalty for remaining uninsured after 2010. raise taxpayer costs and give government too Sicker, older patients joined the plans instead. much power. As healthcare costs to treat previously Lara’s bill doesn’t give specifics about how a uninsured Californians mounted, the big insurers public healthcare system would replace private raised their rates elsewhere. Employer-sponsored plans. Medicare, the federally-funded health and family plans, in some cases, became more coverage for the elderly, is often held up as expensive and public opinion soured toward a model of what a single-payer system might Obamacare. Support for the healthcare law look like, health-industry observers say. was divided between the groups: one receiving California has flirted with the single-payer affordable healthcare vs. people now paying healthcare model before. Gov. Schwarzenegger’s higher premiums. It should be noted even those administration twice pushed bills to create a paying more were receiving more because of state-run healthcare system. One of the main the Obamacare provision that all insurance arguments for a single system is the state could plans cover 10 basic areas of health services. negotiate with hospitals and drug companies for lower prices, driving down health costs statewide. It also addresses a shortage of physicians in networks, according to Lara’s bill. The shortage is less pronounced in populated areas, including the South Bay, and more severe in the mountain and high desert areas. No state in the country uses a single-payer health system, though Vermont came closest in 2014 when voters approved the conversion. When it proved too difficult to finance, lawmakers shelved the plan. California’s fallback to losing Obamacare has pitfalls that will be difficult to overcome, says a leader with the Kaiser Family Foundation. Larry Levitt, a senior vice president at the Kaiser foundation, says that a single-payer system dramatically changes health care in two ways. “Single-payer plans have lots of appeal in their simplicity and ability to control costs,” he said. “But what I think has always held back a move to single-payer is the disruption they create in financing and delivery of care.” Even if this non-traditional healthcare system winds up lowering overall costs to Californians, the single-payer plans look to the public like a “very big tax increase,” Lara added. Lara’s bill is supported by The California Nurses Association. The group supports the underlying goal to create a system that doesn’t exclude anyone and helps relieve patients’ financial burdens. Obamacare supporters, including the California Endowment, say that the national healthcare law achieved some of these goals, though it was far from perfect. Supporters of the Affordable Care Act say the law is far from perfect. Daniel Zingale, a former staff member for Gov. Schwarzenegger, says that the action to save the healthcare law is happening on the ground. Californians who were worried about having their new health coverage stripped away by a repeal have spoken Inside This Issue Certified & Licensed Professionals.......................2 Classifieds............................2 Community Letter................3 Community Briefs...............3 Food.......................................5 Hawthorne Happenings....3 Legals................................ 6-7 Pets........................................8 Police Reports.....................2 Sports....................................4 Weekend Forecast Friday Sunny 72˚/56˚ Saturday Mostly Sunny 74˚/59˚ Sunday Sunny 74˚/59˚ See Plan B, page 8
Hawthorne_030917_FNL_lorez
To see the actual publication please follow the link above