This week’s episode of California Connected cuts to the heart of the matter by examining the complicated and interrelated problems faced by those who provide and receive health care in our state.
Told from the perspective of five Californians, we see their everyday challenges and hear first-hand how they would remedy our state’s varying health care-related problems.
First, a visit with paramedic Craig Weismann who reports that too many people are calling 911 as a “fix-all”. Weismann has seen an increase in the number of calls to which he responds that involve general rather than urgent healthcare issues. Many of the calls he goes on are for ailments that could easily be treated in a doctor’s office.
Next we accompany nurse Kristen Craven on her rounds at Sutter Roseville Hospital. Craven sees more and more people using the hospital ER as a primary care facility because they do not have insurance. She also laments that there are simply not enough nurses to take care of the influx, despite state mandated patient-nurse ratios.
From a crowded hospital to a working mill yard, we meet Laurie Mark, an employer who provides insurance for her staff of approximately 20. Over the past few years, Mark has seen her health insurance premiums go through the roof over. Now, as she finds out her premiums are going up another 31%, she will need to figure out whether or not she top drop her coverage or pass on the increases to her blue-collar employees.
Difficult choices like Mark’s are what inspired Bruce Bodaken, the CEO of Blue Shield, to champion a proposal that would legally compel all employers to offer some health insurance coverage at the same time that it would also require all Californians with available income to purchase health care.
Stuck in the middle of these criss-crossing currents is Mark Uffer, the CEO of Arrowhead Regional, one of California’s “safety-net hospitals.” Uffer opens his doors and his books, to show us what a hospital in the middle of the healthcare crisis is really up against.