Governor Newsom Announces Healthy California For All Commission

Dec 18, 2019, SACRAMENTO – Governor Gavin Newsom today announced the launch of the Healthy California for All Commission and appointed health experts in business, philanthropy, academia, and labor to serve.

The Commission will work to develop a plan for advancing progress toward achieving a health care delivery system for California that provides coverage and access through a unified financing system, including, but not limited to a single-payer financing system. The Commission will prepare an initial report to the Governor and Legislature by July 2020 with a final report in February 2021. The first meeting will take place on Jan. 27 in Sacramento.

The announcement comes on the same day as Covered California, the state’s publicly run insurance exchange, announced that a total of 230,000 new consumers have selected a plan during open enrollment through Dec.16, which is an increase of 16 percent over this time last year. In addition, more than 1.15 million existing consumers have had their plans renewed for the upcoming year. California’s individual market consistently ranks among the healthiest in the nation, helping unsubsidized consumers save about $1,550 annually in 2018 on their premiums compared to consumers in the federal marketplace.

The commission has 13 voting members including Secretary Ghaly, eight gubernatorial appointees and four legislative appointees. There are also five ex-officio, non-voting members.

Throughout his first year in office, the Governor and legislature worked to move California closer to universal health care coverage by expanding coverage, increasing Covered California subsidies for middle-income Californians and taking on rising prescription drug prices. The 2019-20 Budget invests $1.45 billion over three years to increase Covered California health insurance premium support for low-income Californians – and provides premium support for the first time to qualified middle-income individuals earning up to $72,000 and families of four earning up to $150,000, partially funded by restoration of an enforceable Individual Mandate. It expands Medi-Cal coverage to all income-eligible undocumented young adults ages 19 through 25 and includes an increase of $1 billion, using Prop 56 funding, to support increased rates to Medi-Cal providers, expanded family planning services, and value-based payments that encourage more effective treatment of patients with chronic conditions.The Governor’s appointees to the Healthy California for All Commission are:

Carmen Comsti, 35, of Oakland, has been appointed to the Healthy California for All Commission. Comsti has been a regulatory policy specialist at the California Nurses Association and National Nurses United since 2016. She was legal counsel at the California Nurses Association and National Nurses United from 2014 to 2016. Comsti was an attorney fellow at the Employee Rights Advocacy Institute for Law and Policy from 2012 to 2014. She is a member of the National Employment Lawyers Association. Comsti earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. Comsti is a Democrat.

Jennie C. Hansen, 71, of San Francisco, has been appointed to the Healthy California for All Commission. Hansen has been an independent consultant at Hirsch and Associates LLC since 2018. She was chief executive officer at the American Geriatrics Society from 2010 to 2015. Hansen was a federal commissioner of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission from 2005 to 2011.

This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation.

Hansen is a Democrat.

Sandra R. Hernandez, 62, of San Francisco, has been appointed to the Healthy California for All Commission. Hernandez has been president and chief executive officer at the California Health Care Foundation since 2014.

This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation.

Hernandez is a Democrat.

William C. Hsiao, 83, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been appointed to the Healthy California for All Commission. Hsiao has served as a research professor of economics at the department of health policy management and the department of global health and population at Harvard University since 1974.

This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation.

Hsiao is a Democrat.

Rupa Marya, 44, of Oakland, has been appointed to the Healthy California for All Commission. Marya is an associate professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, where she has been on faculty since 2007.

This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation.

Marya is a registered without party preference.

Robert Ross, 65, of Altadena, has been appointed to the Healthy California for All Commission. Ross has been president and chief executive officer of the California Endowment since 2000.

This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation.

Ross is a Democrat.

Richard Scheffler, 76, of Berkeley, has been appointed to the Healthy California for All Commission. Scheffler has served as a professor at the School of Public Health and the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley since 2018.

This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation.

Scheffler is a Democrat.

Andy Schneider, 71, of Washington, D.C., has been appointed to the Healthy California for All Commission. Schneider has been research professor of practice at the Center for Children and Families in the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy since 2017.

This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation.

Schneider is a Democrat.

The Legislature’s appointees are:

Sara Flocks, policy coordinator with the California Labor Federation (Senate appointee); Janice Rocco, deputy commissioner, health policy and reform, Department of Insurance (Senate appointee); Antonia Hernandez, CEO of the California Community Foundation (Assembly appointee); and Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access (Assembly appointee)

The Commission’s ex officio members are: Richard Figueroa, acting director of the Department of Health Care Services;Peter V. Lee, executive director of Covered California; Don Moulds, chief health director of CalPERS; Senator Richard Pan, chair of the Senate Health Committee; and Assemblymember Jim Wood, chair of the Assembly Health Committee

Content retrieved from: https://www.gov.ca.gov/2019/12/18/governor-newsom-announces-healthy-california-for-all-commission/