Friday, June 6, 2008

Cultural Revolution in San Francisco's Health Access Plan! 

Public Health Bureaucracy Will Teach Your Child to Touch Her Toes!

By John R. Graham

Filed As:  Health Care

Being Friday, I thought I'd lay off the heavy analysis and have some fun with my old bugaboo, San Francisco's pointless and expensive Health Access Plan.  As discussed before, I am at a loss to understand what this program achieves, other than levying a "pay or play" tax on employers to fund the city's public health bureaucracy.  Yesterday, I was walking to a PRI reception for Michael Medved, when I saw this ad on a billboard on Stockton Street in Chinatown:

An ad for the SF Health Access plan

The ad is for the SF Health Access Plan (which you can see if you squint at the bottom left-hand corner of the billboard).  My Chinese is pretty weak (honestly, non-existent, but I have more educated colleagues), but I understand that the slogan has something to do with becoming a "strong woman".

So, our deficit-ridden city is unlikely to get any private medical clinics or hospitals to join its network, but it can get your kid to touch her toes.  I suppose it's because I don't read Chinese, but this billboard eerily reminds me of some of the posters of children from Mao's Cultural Revolution - but with better production values.

I still have no idea if the SF HAP is improving anyone's access to health care or improving health outcomes, but now I know that there's at least one ad agency and photographer profiting from this new tax on San Francisco's small businesses.

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