San Francisco Mayor Proposes An Alternate Plan For The Uninsured City Residents

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said that he has a plan that will enable the uninsured in the city to have access to health care facility.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said that he has a plan that will enable the uninsured in the city to have access to health care facility. The taxpayers, employers and the recipients of the insurance coverage, will cover this insurance.

His plan has the potential to benefit tens of thousands of city residents. Supervisor Tom Ammiano who is a member of the health care legislation said that he supports the mayor's idea and believes it will provide coverage for even more San Franciscans.

This is because the Mayor’s plan would cover anyone without health insurance working, self-employed or unemployed. Though the work is in the pipeline it is a significant step towards universal health care.

He also offers to incorporate a portion of the mayor's proposal in his legislative proposal. The Mayor revealed that the cost would vary from $50 to $100 a month per uninsured San Franciscan.

This is due to the fact that the officials don’t have a finite figure of the number of people who are uninsured in San Francisco. A committee made up of business, labor and consumer interests, city officials, representatives from hospitals and community clinics, academics and other health care experts would provide a plan and the details about the number of people to be brought under the insurance coverage.

The uninsured would get help from public and nonprofit community health clinics. There are 20 such clinics, which would provide a health plan card and be assigned a primary care provider.

The clinic would provide a gateway for them to enter in to the health care system. The San Francisco Health Plan, which is sponsored by the city, would run the program.

The program would mainly deal with delivering services related to preventive care, such as blood pressure screening, pap smears and other tests considered part of a routine physical examination. If the necessity arises the patients would be directed to a specialist provided by the city-run San Francisco General Hospital.

Various plans to increase the working hours in the evenings and weekends to implement this plan are already in the pipeline. Patients are also required to make payments but it would be lower in case of preventive care, which would avoid the patient’s visit to the emergency room, where care is considerably more expensive.

The main aim of the program is to protect the patients from facing bankruptcy in case of exaggerated medical bills.