California Moves Toward Universal Health Care

California Moves Toward Universal Health Care

By KEVIN SACK
Published: December 18, 2007


SACRAMENTO — California moved significantly closer to enacting a broad expansion of health insurance coverage Monday when the Democratic-controlled Assembly passed legislation that has the backing of the Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

But it is far from certain that the Legislature will give final approval to the measure, which would provide coverage to an estimated 70 percent of the 5.1 million persistently uninsured Californians.

The bill must first gain passage in the Senate, also controlled by Democrats, where there are deep concerns about the measure’s impact on the state’s widening budget gap. And even if the Senate ultimately joins with Mr. Schwarzenegger and the Assembly, state leaders then must persuade California voters to support billions of dollars in new taxes and fees in a November referendum.

The Senate president pro tem, Don Perata, has said he will not bring his members back to Sacramento until the 2008 session begins on Jan. 7.

Though Mr. Perata, a Democrat from Oakland, has endorsed the plan’s general concept, he is worried that the state’s budget problems make it impractical. On Monday, he asked legislative fiscal analysts to study the Assembly bill’s long-term fiscal implications, particularly in light of any cuts in social services that may be made to bring next year’s budget into balance.

Nonetheless, Monday’s passage by the Assembly, on a party-line vote of 46 to 31, culminated nearly a year of negotiation that began in January, when Mr. Schwarzenegger proposed an audacious plan to insure all Californians. Three other states — Massachusetts, Maine and Vermont — had passed similar plans in recent years, but all are significantly smaller than California, which is the country’s largest state, and have lower proportions of uninsured residents.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/18/us/18care.html?ex=1355634000&en=7bb1b5d30f41039d&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Californians almost always reject big tax hikes.

The people who are most in need of health insurance are generally the ones who are least likely to vote.

and it may be marginally better than emergency room service, what it really does is put more taxpayer bucks in the pocket of Ahnuld's pals in the insurance bidness. The only way to achieve universal health care is with a single payer system, but insurance companies would never consent to being cut out of the process.