"Calling for massive changes throughout a healthcare system he called "broken," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday
proposed a $12-billion plan that would require all Californians to obtain medical insurance while helping the poorest to afford it," reports Jordan Rau in the Times.
"The plan, which both critics and supporters called the most audacious in the country, would dramatically reshuffle the financial underpinnings of an already fragile industry. The governor said his plan would control spiraling health costs while ensuring coverage for the quarter of a million children and 5.6 million adults who lack insurance.
'
Everyone in California must have health insurance,' Schwarzenegger said
via teleconference from Los Angeles, where he is recuperating from a broken leg. 'If you can't afford it, the state will help you buy it, but you must be insured.'"
The Union-Tribune
runs down the plan's highlights.
Peter Nicholas and Evan Halper looks at
how the governor would pay for it while keeping his pledge not to raise taxes. "As part of a plan that promises healthcare for all Californians” the centerpiece of his policy agenda this year” Schwarzenegger wants to raise $1 billion in revenues from businesses and more than $3.7 billion from hospitals and doctors.
Whether he succeeds will depend on his salesmanship. He will have to persuade influential business interests that what he is pitching is not a tax increase as commonly understood, but one component of a larger solution to a healthcare crisis marked by rising costs and spiking premiums.
It is not new taxes that he want to impose, the governor says, but "fees."
That's a thorny issue: A new tax would require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature ” something that could be difficult for Schwarzenegger to pull off. Republicans' votes would be needed in that case, and some have already signaled their opposition.
A "fee" can be passed by a simple majority, which would require no Republican votes. Should Schwarzenegger and his legislative allies draft a healthcare bill that defines the levies as "fees," the whole matter would probably wind up in court.
'
It is disappointing that just 72 hours into his [second term] he's shattered the central campaign pledge upon which he won reelection -- not to raise taxes,' said state Sen.
Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks), who ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor last year with the governor's support.
'I think it's ironic,' McClintock continued, 'that a governor who just proclaimed himself a centrist would come up with a proposal well to the left of the one presented by Senate President Pro Tem
Don Perata,' a Democrat from Oakland."
The Bee's Clea Benson
writes "Assembly Republican leader
Mike Villines, of Clovis, praised some aspects of the governor's plan but said he
opposed requiring employers to pay for health care.
'Imposing a new jobs tax on employers of any size and expanding costly government mandates is the wrong approach, one which will devastate our economy,' he said."
The LAT's Lisa Girion writes that the plan
could significantly raise costs of existing insurance plans. "Health plans could face sharply rising expenses if they were inundated with customers who were generally in poorer health than their current enrollees. The health plans could respond by raising premiums or leaving the market, as they have in other states that require insurers to sell coverage to everyone.
And that could make it difficult for consumers to heed another part of Schwarzenegger's proposal: that they must buy health coverage.
'I'm worried that if we don't have limits on how much insurance companies can charge, people aren't going to be able to afford healthcare,' said
Scott Svonkin, chairman of the Los Angeles County Commission on Insurance, who was rejected for insurance by three health plans last year."
Dan Walters
assesses the chances of the plan's passage. "
Were public policy-making a rational process, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's boldly comprehensive, multibillion-dollar scheme to expand health coverage to millions of uninsured Californians would be enacted, albeit with some tweaks.
However, the process is not rational, but one that gives every "stakeholder" a virtual veto power over the final product, if there is a product. And traditionally, that has meant that either nothing happens (think water policy), or the result is an amalgamation of special interest provisions that collapses of its own weight (think energy deregulation).
Few, if any, issues are bigger, more complex or more emotional than health care, which is why it has vexed policymakers for decades. Roughly a fifth of California's 37 million residents lack health insurance -- the working poor for the most part -- and myriad efforts to fill the void have either failed in the Legislature, been vetoed or been rejected by voters.
Health care looms as another huge test for a political system that has, for the most part, failed to address California's pressing policy issues.
There are four possibilities: effectively reforming health care, enacting a minor, face-saving expansion of care, another gridlock failure, or creating another unworkable monstrosity.Schwarzenegger exhibits his characteristic optimism, but we've been down this road before and it led nowhere."
The Bee's Peter Schrag writes that the big ideas with uncertain financing
mirrors the will of the voters. "California is stuck between wanting it all and not wanting to pay for any of it, still stuck between our majority-minority population and our overwhelmingly Anglo white electorate. We want our illegal immigrants as workers but we're not yet sure we want them as people or even as drivers. If the governor is really equal to his monumental national ambitions, it's these things that will be the test -- his and ours."
The governor will flesh out more of his policy agenda this week with
tonight's State of the State address and
Wednesday's budget unveiling.
LAT's Marc Lifsher says
fuel emissions are next on he governor's list. "Escalating California's battle against global warming, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to announce today that he will order a 10% cut in motor vehicle emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide.
"Under the proposal,
petroleum refiners and gasoline sellers would be ordered to reduce the carbon content of their fuels over the next 13 years.
"The order could also usher in a new generation of alternative fuels in California, experts say, as refiners consider adding ethanol or other biofuels into gasoline blends. It could also mean a shift of part of the state's auto fleet to hydrogen or electric power."
Yesterday was also inaugural day for new statewide officers around Califorina.
Bill Lockyer celebrated with
Willie Brown and "futurist
Peter Schwartz" in Sacramento,
Jerry Brown was hangingwith cops in San Francisco, and
Steve Poizner was down in San Jose with comedian
Kevin Pollak.
Poizner said he would seek to make his office non-partisan, just as the state superintendent's office is now. And, he said, "when I return to Sacramento,
I’ll ask the Legislature to pass a new law banning contributions to my office from those who are regulated by, or do business with, the Department of Insurance."
Finally, former
Lois Wolk field representative
Kingsley Melton was severely burned over the holidays in a San Diego house fire. Melton, son of Yolo County Public Defender
Barry "The Fish" Melton, continues to be in an induced coma in intensive care at the UC San Diego Med Center, after suffering second- and third-degree burns on 30% of his body.
Kingsley, who most recently ran a Yolo County supervisorial campaign, was between jobs and, like many campaign operatives, without health insurance. We're finding ways for the Capitol community to help in his long recovery and will report back soon.
Get well soon, Kingsley.
