Los Angeles Daily News

State Senate votes 24-14 for universal health care

By Don Thompson
Associated Press

Wednesday, June 01, 2005 - SACRAMENTO -- The state Senate approved a bill Tuesday to create a universal health-care system overseen by an elected commissioner, although many of the details have yet to be worked out.

Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Los Angeles, urged senators to send her measure to the Assembly so negotiations can continue, with no funding plan likely to be added until next year. Senators agreed on a 24-14 vote.

Seven million Californians have no health insurance, while an additional 4 million had none at some point in the last two years, Kuehl said. She noted that an additional 4 million are underinsured.

The bill is "affordable and completely comprehensive," she said. "It solves a huge problem, and it really can work. This is the most effective and efficient way to do it."

Sen. Dave Cox, R-Roseville, said the plan could cost $8 billion and predicted it would result in rationing of health-care services.

Sen. George Runner, R-Lancaster, said other nations' universal health care systems don't work well, as demonstrated by patients who come to the United States for treatment.

The debate comes seven months after voters narrowly defeated an attempt to require employer-based coverage. Kuehl's bill would replace private insurance plans as well as cover the currently uninsured.

The Senate approved a less ambitious version of Kuehl's bill in 2003, but it died in the Assembly. Legislators instead sent then-Gov. Gray Davis a bill requiring large and mid-size employers to help pay for health insurance for their workers. Supporters said it would cover about 1 million of the uninsured.

Davis signed the law, but the measure was invalidated by voters in November when they narrowly rejected Proposition 72. The initiative would have required large employers to pay at least 80 percent of their workers' health care premiums by 2006.