California can lead nation with public option for health insurance

California’s workers are facing a mounting health care affordability crisis. The cost of insurance for families has grown more than two and half times faster than wages have, putting health care out of reach for more and more people. This gap is even larger for the state’s Black and Latino populations.

Part of the solution is within reach: The state should introduce a public option to compete with private insurance plans and drive down premiums. California is uniquely suited to pioneer this approach and has hard evidence that it will work.

We propose a public-option for California that we call Golden Choice. It is based on the ability of the state’s integrated medical groups to provide high-quality care at a lower cost by receiving monthly revenue per enrollee, a payment system known as capitation. The figure would be adjusted for each patient’s age, gender, health status and related characteristics likely to influence need for care. This model provides incentives to the health care system to keep participants healthy and to manage illnesses with strong primary care and close coordination with specialists.

Our research indicates that health insurance premiums based on this model of care would be the lowest premiums in 14 of the 19 regions for California’s insurance marketplace. Individuals who switch from what’s now their most affordable option would save $1,389 a year on premiums through the state public option plan. Our work also looked at how the public option would fare if offered by the California Public Employees Retirement System, and we found that the premium would be lower than the premiums in nine of the 10 HMO plans now offered to members.

California already has some experience with a public option: L.A. Care in Los Angeles County. This county-based public plan has been listed since 2014 on the state’s insurance exchange. Our research team found that L.A. Care’s low premiums have had a competitive effect on the market, driving down prices. Premiums of the other plans have declined, and L.A. Care’s enrollment increased to more than 125,000 last year. The estimated savings because of this public option were $345 million as of 2022. This decline in premiums did not happen in the rest of the state, where there is no similar plan. (L.A. Care has been faulted for treatment delays, but it says the problems reflect a systemic issue related to payment rates.)

County plans are a valuable force in the marketplace, but the Newsom administration has the chance to make insurance more affordable on a much larger scale across all of California. It’s an achievable goal.

A statewide public option would require little to no new funding from the state. The Department of Managed Health Care already regulates capitated medical groups. We recommend that the state establish an Office of Public Options so that the 18 million commercially insured Californians and the uninsured are able to share the benefits of a public option — particularly lower premiums. The office would organize, implement and promote a statewide public option.

The affordability of health care continues to be a nightmare for many Californians, fueling a crisis of medical debt that disproportionately hurts low-income workers and minorities. By introducing a state public plan, California would set an example for other states and the federal government to develop plans of their own that could, in turn, drive down premiums nationwide.

Richard Scheffler is a professor at the Graduate School of Public Health and the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley. He was appointed by the governor to serve on the Healthy California for All commission. Stephen Shortell is a professor at the School of Public Health and the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and dean emeritus of the School of Public Health. ©2023 Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.