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News of the Day ... In Perspective9/3/2007
Showdown in California over mandatory insurance
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed a $12 billion �universal� health care proposal that would impose new fees on doctors, hospitals, and employers, and require the uninsured to buy coverage. The Democrat-dominated legislature plans to put it to a vote to show how little support it has. A Field Poll showed that only 33 percent of the public supports it.
Schwarzenegger�s proposal involves tax increases, so it requires a two-thirds majority to pass.
The Democrats have proposed an alternate plan, structured so that it needs only a simple majority to pass. This would force employers to spend at least 7.5 percent of payroll on health care or pay that amount into a state-run pool�almost twice the amount Schwarzenegger proposed. The governor has promised to veto it.
Unions say the governor�s plan �asks too much of the working poor.� They also say that under the Democrats� plan �the working poor will be asked to pay too much� and that employers will dump their workers into the state-run insurance pool.
The two proposals are �only inches apart� says Larry Levitt, a vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation.
�If we fail, it will have the effect of a wet blanket on health reform nationally,� said Robert Ross, president of the California Endowment.
�Success� in California is said to be crucial to the presidential hopes of John Edwards, whose national health care plan is a compromise between Schwarzenegger�s and California Democrats�.
Failure might be the best option for California, in the opinion of Sen. Sheila Kuehl, chairman of the Senate Health Committee and advocate for single payer. �I hope that none of these ill-conceived, quickly thrown together plans will pass this year� (Laura Kurtzman, Associated Press 8/29/07).
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