If SB840 had not been vetoed by the governor, many of us now insured by our current retirement benefits would be in trouble. Many people I know worked at jobs for years for medical coverage at lower salaries so they could have these benefits. I do not believe that those already covered should be forced into socialized medicine, which is what the state plan would be. Why should we pay more for what we already have? And, we would pay more because when the state sets up a bureaucracy, that costs money.
We were already burned by the state of California when it allowed state insurers to drop earthquake coverage after a great earthquake in the 1990s. It was then the state put together its own earthquake coverage. Since we could not find other insurance, we paid for the California Earthquake Authority's insurance at a premium of $800 a year for two years until we found out-of-state earthquake coverage at almost half the premium. And there were threats of surcharges when covered by the California Earthquake Authority because if they ran out of money, the CEA threatened a possible 20 percent increase of the already high premium.
Need I remind everyone of deregulation at the hands of our California Assembly that put our state in turmoil when we were overcharged by outside utility providers since we no longer owned our own fuel?
Make coverage available to those who have no coverage, but don't punish those of us who already have coverage.
— Elaine F. Navarro, Ventura
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