July 05, 2018
Area(s) of Interest:
Physician Leadership Professional Development & Education
The 147th Annual Session of the California Medical Association (CMA) House of Delegates (HOD) will tackle one major issue—addressing the cost of health care—when it convenes October 13-14, 2018, in Sacramento.
CMA physician delegates meet annually to establish broad policy on current major issues that have been determined to be the most important issues affecting members, the association and the practice of medicine.
Because this year’s topic is a large issue, it has been divided up into four categories.
Earlier this year, some lawmakers in California introduced a reckless proposal to put a new government bureaucracy in charge of health care. AB 3087, authored by Ash Kalra (D-San Jose), would have created a commission of unelected political appointees empowered to arbitrarily cap rates for all health care services in all clinics, hospitals and physician practices in California.
This dangerous rate setting proposal would have moved California away from value-based care and universal access, backwards to an antiquated fee-for-service model that discouraged contracting and stifles innovation.
While CMA was able to defeat the bill, the underlying issue that the bill's proponents sought to address—the rising cost of health care—is likely to be the subject of future state and federal legislation. As California prepares to transition to a new gubernatorial administration, developing a comprehensive health care cost containment plan will be critical to clarifying CMA's priorities for health care for the incoming governor.
Due to the volume of reforms that would be required to effect meaningful health care cost containment, the proposed reforms will be discussed across the four goals listed above.
Reports on these goals are now available for comment. All members are welcome to submit comments online at www.cmadocs.org/hod.