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The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) today expressed strong support for today’s Senate action that advanced national health care reform one step closer for all Americans.
“This is historic action for our nation and for those that have struggled without health insurance for so long,” said Rob Feckner, President of the CalPERS Board of Administration. “This bill represents genuine cost containment and gets us one step closer to reforming our antiquated health care system. CalPERS supported a number of cost-containment amendments that were successfully added to the final Senate bill based on amendments offered by a group of eleven freshmen Senators.”
CalPERS will spend more than $5.8 billion this year on health benefits for more than 1.3 million active and retired State and local government employees and their family members.
The pension fund’s position on national health care reform encompasses three essential priorities, including:
- Making health care more affordable for all Americans;
- Reforms should include innovative proposals to constrain costs, increase value, and improve quality and efficiency in the health care system; and
- Restrain the growing cost of prescription drugs.
“We are committed to supporting health care reforms that will provide high quality, affordable, sustainable health care coverage for all Americans and we believe this can be accomplished by dealing with systemic health care issues. Today’s action mirrors the growing consensus among Americans that now is the time to make these changes to our health care system,” added Feckner.
CalPERS has been a leader in taking actions to moderate health care costs. Since 2002, the fund has worked on a series of efforts, including stronger negotiations with health plans and member education on better health care practices, to achieve its lowest overall premium increase in 14 years – 2.9 percent in 2010.
CalPERS has more than $200 billion in assets and is the largest public pension fund in the U.S. It administers retirement benefits for more than 1.6 million active and retired State, public school, and local public agency employees. For more information on CalPERS, visit www.calpers.ca.gov.
