According to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey, premiums for employer-sponsored family health coverage have increased by 73 percent since 2000, while wages increased only 15 percent concurrently.[1] Nationally, the number of employers offering health coverage dropped 13 percent between 2000 and 2005, which leaves only 60 percent of all employers that still offer health insurance.[2] Many employers are shifting premium costs to their employees and/or selecting policies with higher co-pays or policies with high deductibles. These deductibles must be met before the insured are provided care that is paid for by the insurer.[3]

 Billions of dollars are diverted each year from health care by the current fragmented health insurance and delivery system that wastes 20 to 30 percent of health care dollars on administration--excluding profit.[4] Californians pay about 50 percent more than Europeans, Australians, Japanese, and Canadians do for the same prescription drugs manufactured by the same companies.[5]

 Often, overcrowded emergency rooms have long waiting times, routine diversions of ambulance drivers and are not available to all patients who need them.[6] A national study finds that both insured and uninsured patients are responsible for much of the increased usage. Visits to emergency departments by the uninsured increased by about 10 percent despite a smaller percent change in the overall number of uninsured.[7] During the same period, visits to physician offices by uninsured persons declined by 37 percent. Higher caseloads and lower reimbursements from public and private payers compelled many medical practices to limit care provided to uninsured patients.[8]

 The study also finds that although emergency room use by the uninsured did increase, most of the increase in usage was from those insured by Medicare and private plans. Together, these insured patients accounted for about two-thirds of the overall increase in emergency room visits. The number of privately insured people alone accounted for more than half of the increase in usage during this same period.[9]

 The Institute of Medicine finds that Americans are experiencing an epidemic of sub-standard care, which they term a "quality chasm”—a wide gulf between the care needed and the care actually delivered to patients.[10] Each year an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 hospitalized people die from preventable medical errors and from infections acquired while in the hospital.[11] Deaths from misapplication of technology in all settings are estimated to be as high as 400,000, of which about two-thirds are preventable.[12]

 The United States ranks lower in overall population health compared to countries that have universal health care systems. In a comparison of health trends among 30 developed countries from 2004-2005, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development finds the US ranks ninth in life expectancy and 28th in infant mortality. Of these countries, only Turkey and Mexico experience more infant deaths per 1000 live births than the US.[13] 

 Nearly two million Americans filed for bankruptcy in 2001 because of medical bills, and 76 percent these people had health insurance when they became ill.[14]

 Being insured under the current multi-payer system affords no promise of health care security or care quality. SB 840 saves health care dollars that can be spent on providing care instead of administrative waste that occurs in the current multi-payer health insurance system. In contrast, SB 840 provides for a single payer health care system that eliminates or diminishes most of the above problems. Every resident will receive affordable and comprehensive health care based on a single standard of care. When everyone has health coverage and can choose his or her primary care doctor, long waits and overcrowded emergency rooms will no longer be the norm. The publicly financed universal health care system will provide for mechanisms such as system-wide health care planning and evidence-based care standards to improve care quality and prevent medical and technology errors. When everyone has comprehensive health care, no one will be at risk of financial ruin because of high health care bills.