Health Care Reform is Elementary….and Secondary for CA
Friday, November 16, 2007
San Francisco, CA - School districts are feeling the pinch of rising health insurance costs in California. They're eating into public school budgets at a time when new textbooks are needed and class sizes are larger than recommended. The outcome of healthcare reform negotiations between the Governor and Legislature will directly affect students, according to California Federation of Teachers' President Marty Hittelman. He says the cost hikes must be scrutinized as health insurance company profits continue to outpace inflation.
"The taxpayers, who pay for the healthcare, are hurt when the insurance companies decide to make exorbitant profits."
Woodrow Wilson Elementary School teacher Melinda Dart in San Francisco says the Governor and lawmakers have an opportunity now to get as many people covered as possible. She feels covering even half of the seven million uninsured Californians would help ease pressures that also make their way into the classroom.
"It would eliminate the public health hazard in my classroom, with my uninsured students who come to school sick, and less disruption due to students staying home because of being sick."
Hittelman believes the current health insurance-based system is undermining public education. He notes that health insurance companies' administrative costs and profits account for one-third of every health care dollar.
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