This is an archive of a past election. See http://www.smartvoter.org/ca/state/ for current information. |
League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
| |||
| |||
Candidates Answer Questions on the Issues Member of the State Assembly; District 73 | |||
|
The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of California and asked of all candidates for this office. See below for questions on
Budget Crisis,
Education,
Water,
Health Insurance
Click on a name for other candidate information. See also more information about this contest.
Answer from Andrew "Andy" Favor:
A second area that I would like to address is in the area of Medi-Cal abuse. For whatever reason, I receive a phone call at least once a year asking me about having a parent transfer a house and other assets to a child so that the parent will qualify for Medi-Cal benefits without a lien being placed on the assets. This taxpayer rip off is called "Med-Cal Planning." Due to federal laws enacted in 1996, a year Republicans controlled both the House and the Senate, this is perfectly legal. In fact, a Medi-Cal applicant is required to sign a statement that they are aware of this "planning" opportunity by signing a "Notice of Spend-down." I fully support taxpayers in using every legal avenue to keep the government from picking their pockets. However, when someone has a million dollar house and they expect the taxpayers of this state to pay their medical bills, that is just wrong, and I will fight to end this abuse.
I understand that the above items will make but a small dent in the deficit California is facing and therefore reform in all government programs and
benefits will be needed. California businesses can no longer afford Defined Benefit Pension Plans, and California is going to have to face the reality that it cannot afford them either. Therefore I would like to see every conceivable service outsourced to private companies. The city of Lake Forest here in Orange County is a stellar example of how well privatization works.
Answer from Andrew "Andy" Favor:
Answer from Andrew "Andy" Favor:
Answer from Andrew "Andy" Favor:
By way of background, there are three primary categories of people in California who do not have insurance. There are those who are healthy and choose to forgo insurance. There are those who are between jobs and have given up coverage, and there are those who cannot afford it. The answer for all three lies in greatly expanded medical savings accounts.
A medical savings account works just like an IRA and provides a pretax savings vehicle to accumulate money to cover medical costs. Currently, to have a deductible medical insurance premium you have to itemize your taxes and even then you only get to deduct what exceeds 7.5% of your adjusted gross income. Or, your premiums can be deductible if you are self-employed or are fortunate enough to work for an employer who has adopted a Sec. 125 plan. I think every American should be able to pay their health insurance premiums with pre-tax dollars regardless of who they work for.
Congress has taken a good step in the right direction with the creation of "HSA Accounts." However, these have too many restrictions and do not go nearly far enough to be considered a solution.
I envision accounts that have no contribution limits that can receive contributions from an employer or an individual, and can be used pay the medical costs for friends, family, sponsored immigrant relations, or anyone. The entire contribution would be a page one deduction on an individuals tax return and would generate a credit for social security taxes so that contributions have all of the benefits of a Sec. 125 plan.
The adoption of such a plan would diminish the numbers of un-insured Californians as follows:
Healthy Individuals-Tax deductibility would give healthy individuals an economic incentive to contribute to a plan knowing that they can buy a high deductible or catastrophic policy that would leave the bulk of their contribution to grow tax free to cover future medical needs, or personal enjoyment later in life.
Workers Between Jobs-Participation in a health insurance plan would be at the individual level and the medical savings account will allow families to accumulate funds to cover insurance premiums between jobs without portability issues.
Poor People-Obviously a tax deduction is meaningless to a poor person who does not pay taxes. My plan allows for an employer to contribute to a MSA for an employee as part of a salary package, but goes further in that it makes a legitimate tax deduction for people who come to the aid of a "needy family." Because government programs typically are like a leaky hose with only pennies on the tax dollar actually going to help the truly needy, my plan eliminates the middleman so that 100% of aid to the needy goes to cover medical expenses without the fraud element of government programs. More money going directly to aid the poor and less fraud will result in dramatically more help for those in society who are truly in need.
The order of the candidates is random and changes daily. |