Jerry Brown, Governor of California issued Executive Order B-19-12 on May 3rd requiring a partnership to be formed with the Federal government to make the California healthcare system work more cost effectively and efficiently. Today, the state is spending 80 percent of the state’s total healthcare dollars on just 20 percent of the population.
As the Governor sees the problem, the state lacks a statewide strategy for collecting, prioritizing, and sharing information to help people make informed decisions concerning their own health. California is home to innovative and leaders in healthcare, technology, research, and philanthropy and has a strong record for developing successful prevention and wellness strategies.
The Executive Order requires the Secretary of HHS to establish a “Let’s Get Healthy California Task Force”. The goal is to develop a ten year plan to not only improve the health of Californians, but also to control healthcare costs, promote personal responsibility for individual health, and establish baselines for key health indicators, identify obstacles to better care, make fiscally prudent recommendations, and establish a framework for measuring improvements.
The Executive Order also requires the Secretary to appoint the members of the Task Force and include individuals representing patients and consumers, healthcare providers, health plans, employers, community-base organizations, foundations, and organized labor. The task force is required to meet by June 15, 2012.
The Executive Order also requires a report to be submitted to the Secretary by December 2012 that sets targets to:
- Reduce diabetes, asthma, childhood obesity, hypertension, and sepsis-related mortality
- Reduce hospital readmissions within 30 days of discharge
- Increase the number of children receiving recommended vaccines by age three
The report also makes recommendations on how to achieve these targets without requiring additional government spending over a ten year period of time.
