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Berg, who chairs the Assembly committee that oversees health spending, will be part of a seven-member working group consulting with Speaker Fabian Núñez as he negotiates a health plan with the governor and Senate.
“The North Coast is at the table,” said Berg, D-Eureka. “I’ll be there to give voice to our region’s desire for affordability and universality.”
Núñez, whose plans have been to expand healthcare access rather than create an entirely new system, said Berg and others will bring a “broad diversity of views” to the negotiations.
“These legislators will provide critical direction,” Núñez said.
Other members of the group are: Assembly members Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles; Hector De La Torre, D-South Gate; Mervyn Dymally, D-Los Angeles; Mark DeSaulnier, D-Martinez; Ed Hernandez, D-Baldwin Park; and Mary Hayashi, D-Hayward.
“We’re dealing with two major problems here,” said Berg. “One is access to care, and the other is how we’re going to finance it.”
Berg’s appointment continues her role as a key voice on health care reform.
She co-authored both major bills this session, the single-payer bill (SB 840) by Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, and the insurance expansion plan (AB 8) by Núñez and Senate leader Don Perata, D-Oakland.
Kuehl’s bill stalled as politically untenable this year, and although the Legislature approved the Núñez/Perata bill, the governor has promised to veto it. Left with no significant reform, the governor called the Legislature into special session so they can find a compromise.
Health care reform has proved a very difficult subject which ignites the concerns of patients, doctors, hospital operators, insurance companies, labor groups, businesses and local governments.
“Nobody said it would be easy,” said Berg. “Nobody said we’re going to get everything we want. But we’re certainly going to try.”
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