Feinstein, Campbell Speak on Health Care

OXNARD —  Painting a bleak picture of California’s health-care system, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein told a local audience Monday that the state is in a crisis that can be saved only by reining in HMOs, enacting a patients’ bill of rights and making prescription drugs more affordable.

She said the health-care system “is exploding, it is fragmenting,” hospitals are closing down, and doctors are fleeing.

At the same time, her November opponent, Rep. Tom Campbell (R-San Jose), was also in Oxnard, meeting with local officials and supporters at the Anacapa Yacht Club.

Campbell said poll figures showed him at 40% to Feinstein’s 50%, and added that with some more name recognition, he believes he could beat the incumbent Democrat.

“There’s a rule of thumb in politics that if an incumbent is at 50% or lower on Labor Day, she’s done,” Campbell said.

The appearance of the two on the same day in the same city is mere coincidence, a Campbell supporter said.

“We arranged this back in June,” said Enrique Cornejo, president of the Hispanic Congress of Republicans of Ventura County, which invited Campbell to speak. “They were also in Tulare County together. They keep crossing paths.”

Feinstein said she wasn’t taking her opponent for granted.

“Of course I see everyone as a challenge. California is a big, volatile state,” she said.

Feinstein spoke to a gathering of the California Assn. of Health Facilities at the Radisson Hotel in Oxnard.

The group, which represents nursing homes and long-term care facilities, says its industry is spiraling downward because of a $15-billion Medicare cut negotiated in the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. The result, the group says, is a rash of nursing home bankruptcies, low pay for workers and increasing demand for long-term care facilities.

Feinstein, the daughter of a surgeon, said California’s problem began when “medicine became a business.”

“My father charged those who could afford it and didn’t charge those who couldn’t,” she said.

The senator told the 400 people in the audience that 7 million Californians have no health insurance; 39 California hospitals have closed; 64% of hospitals are losing money; 300 physician health provider groups have gone bankrupt; eight major health maintenance organizations are cutting back coverage; and the state is 48th in Medicare reimbursements.

The answer, she said, is to replace some of the cuts, pass an HMO bill of rights and enact a law that would make prescription drugs affordable to all.

“As long as business is practicing medicine, you need a patients’ bill of rights,” she said. “The important thing is that people who have need of life-saving drugs will have access to them. I predict we will see a prescription-drug plan passed next year.”

According to the state association of health facilities, Ventura County will need 530 new direct-care staff members this year.

Statewide, Los Angeles County has the highest staff vacancies for the year 2000 with 9,491. Yuba County had the lowest with 11.

The health association also tallied the number of facilities in bankruptcy. Statewide there were 152 bankruptcies in 1999. Ventura County had just two facilities in bankruptcy, while Los Angeles County led with 21.

Leigh Gori, president of the Channel Islands chapter of the California Assn. of Health Facilities, said Feinstein wasn’t exaggerating.

“It is bleak,” she said. “The average citizen realizes health care is complicated, but they don’t realize how tenuous the situation is. They think health care will go on and on and on.”

She said pay for aides in nursing facilities averages between $5 and $6 per hour, lower than some fast-food outlets. The salaries are low because Medi-Cal pays roughly $110 per day for long-term care services or less than $5 per hour for 24-hour care services, she said. The association said more than two-thirds of nursing home residents depend on government money to pay their care.

Gori said Feinstein was invited in March to speak.

While Campbell claimed that taxpayer groups called Feinstein the biggest spender in the Senate, he, too, called for prescription-drug legislation.

“Prescription drugs are the biggest part of most seniors’ health care,” he said.

Campbell said he has his own bill that would give doctors the right to bargain with HMOs rather than be rolled over by them.

The lawmaker spoke to about 50 fellow Republicans.

Cornejo said it’s a mistake to assume all Hispanics are Democrats. Latino families are conservative in outlook and many come from countries where the central government was the last place you’d look for help, he said.

“In general people who come to this country come here to work,” said Cornejo, an Oxnard travel agent. “They don’t come to take advantage of the system.”

After her speech, Feinstein was asked whether money from the tobacco settlement should go to the county or be given to private hospitals.

“I think the public sector should make the decision on where the money goes,” she said, adding that it should be spent on health care and programs aimed at stopping smoking.

Ventura County is currently battling with Community Memorial Hospital and seven other private hospitals over who should get $260 million in tobacco settlement money. The issue, now called Measure O, will be voted on in November.