CA reform bill backs off doctor tax

All signs seem to suggest that California is poised to move ahead with substantial health system reforms, some of which hit providers in the pocketbook. However, the role of doctors in the proposed new system seems to have shifted from a direct tax to an expanded indigent care role. Why are we bothering telling you so? Because if that's the compromise California makes, you can count on similar provisions turning up elsewhere.

Previous iterations of the state's reform proposal would have required physicians to pay 2 percent of their revenue to subsidize the new program, which is structured to give all Californians affordable health insurance. The latest version, however, drops the pay-in by physicians, adding in its place new rules that would require physicians to care for many of the newly-insured. In another effort to expand healthcare access, the proposal would boost public hospital funding by $500 million.

To learn more about the legislation:
- read this Sacramento Business Journal article

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