Proposed legislation designed to protect our families and small businesses from drastic increases in health care costs is moving through the state Legislature. We must all tell our representatives that this law must immediately be passed.
Introduced in December by Assemblymember Mike Feuer, D-Los Ángeles, AB 52 requires health and insurance plans to obtain approval from state regulators before premiums, co-payments or deductibles are increased.
Recently, we have all seen the frightening stories generated by rapidly rising -- even more rapidly than the cost of medical care -- health insurance costs which families and small businesses can no longer support.
AB 52, which will be heard shortly in the Assembly Appropriations Committee, finally puts into place reasonable laws to regulate these sharp increases, giving state authorities the same power to approve or reject excessive increases just as they do already for auto insurance.
This legislation is good for all California, but it is especially crucial for Latinos and all minority communities. In California, almost 75 percnet of the people without medical coverage are from minority communities, and 2.5 million of them are low-income minorities without health coverage who are eligible for federal health coverage. For these people, it is fundamental that we keep health coverage at a reasonable cost. That is what AB 52 will do.