In this eye-opening interview, Dr. Mark Smith, the President and CEO of the California HealthCare Foundation, sets the record straight on the state’s own version of the national health insurance crisis. Remarking on his own lengthy career in the public health sector, Dr. Smith observes:
The healthcare system is increasingly pricing itself out of the reach who need it most. Richard Nixon, a conservative Republican, proposed universal healthcare in this country with an employer mandate. At the time that he proposed that, the cost of a family premium was about seven percent of a minimum wage worker’s [salary]. And today it’s one hundred percent.
His prescription? To muster “the political will… to get more people into the system” while simultaneously bringing down the costs of medical care.
- Ten Myths about the Uninsured, Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation
- 34% of Health Care Spending Used for Administrative Costs, Study Finds, California Healhtline, California HealthCare Foundation
- Mark D. Smith, M.D., M.B.A., President and CEO, California HealthCare Foundation