Fresno nurse: Omicron arrival shows the need to repair California’s health-care system

As a nurse, I’ve seen countless Fresno neighbors and families have to choose between paying rent or paying for health-care services. With the arrival of the latest variant, Omicron, and the persistence of Long COVID symptoms for as many as half of those infected with the deadly virus, California legislators have an opportunity for the fundamental repair of our health-care system that creates a daily crisis for millions of people.

California’s Guaranteed Health Care for All Act, AB 1400, will face key legislative deadlines in the Assembly in January to dramatically transform a system in which more than 3.2 million people in the state remain uninsured and millions more endure coverage delays and an inability to secure needed access to medications or health care services due to cost.

Despite progress that has been made to confront the pandemic, California coronavirus case rates have risen by 50 percent in December; nearly 6,000 people in California continue to be infected with COVID daily.

In the week before Christmas more than 3,800 in our state were hospitalized, and over 50 people on average were dying every day from the virus. Reports that Omicron is both more transmissible and can more easily evade vaccines are a reminder that the pandemic is far from over.

By late September, 70 percent of the nation’s largest insurers had ended waiving COVID treatment costs, the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) reported. Those surviving the hospitalization confront huge hospital bills and other daunting medical costs. At a time when these same insurers have posted record profits during the pandemic, patients have avoided seeking non-urgent care.

From a third to half of survivors of the infection also face the threat of persistent symptoms, known as Long COVID, for six months or longer, that can include chest and stomach pain, difficulty breathing and concentrating, fatigue, sleep disorders, fevers, depression and other mental health disorders, all of which may require medical help.

Medical bills can soar to thousands of dollars, or hundreds of thousands for those hospitalized, exacerbating a crisis in which last year alone half of U.S. adults skipped health or dental care due to cost while millions continue to face crushing medical debt, the Kaiser foundation noted in mid-December.

AB 1400 will provide the health care security people need.

Under CalCare, introduced by Assemblymember Ash Kalra with 19 co-authors and sponsored by the California Nurses Association, people in California are guaranteed medical care without insurance premiums, deductibles, co-pays, and other burdensome out-of-pocket costs.

We must urge our legislators to vote for and enact CalCare, AB 1400, now.