The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) today sent a letter to members of the California Congressional delegation urging that they enact national health care reforms, calling the status quo an “untenable policy choice.”
In a joint letter, Rob Feckner, CalPERS Board President and Anne Stausboll, the pension fund’s Chief Executive Officer discussed the problem with the failure to act. “There are systemic health care issues that require national attention and there will be a huge cost to inaction at this critical point in our nation. The status quo is an untenable policy choice.”
As the nation’s second largest health care purchaser, CalPERS will spend $5.7 billion this year on health benefits for more than 1.3 million members and their families. Over the last six years, health premiums for its members have increased 60 percent.
In the letter CalPERS supports concepts in the America’s Affordable Health Choice Act 2009 that are closely aligned with the pension fund’s own health care priorities. Those include:
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Making health care affordable for all Americans;
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Finding innovative proposals to constrain costs, increase value and improve quality and efficiency in the health care system; and
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Controlling the growth of prescription drug costs.
CalPERS believes its own experience fighting rising health care costs and the initiatives that it has launched in recent years are prime examples of the savings that can be realized at the national level. CalPERS decisions and actions in recent years have saved the System’s health care program more than $600 million. They include:
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Removing high cost hospitals and adding low cost "high performance" health plans featuring higher-efficiency physicians;
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Emphasizing health and disease management programs and waiving copayments for preventive care office visits in order to encourage regular health screenings and immunizations;
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Increasing cost and quality transparency among health plans and affiliated hospitals and other providers serving CalPERS members.
“We can attest to the potential for savings and efficiency that will be realized nationally from our own work towards controlling costs while maintaining quality of care,” wrote Feckner and Stausboll. "We thank you for your leadership on this critical matter, and look forward to continuing to share our expertise during the coming months."
CalPERS letter to the California Congressional delegation can be found in its press room at www.calpers.ca.gov.
CalPERS is the nation’s largest public pension fund with more than $190 billion in market assets. It provides retirement benefits to more than 1.6 million State, school and local public employees, retirees and their families.
Additional Resources
CalPERS National Health Care Reform Memo (PDF, 1.77 MB)