Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Coverage & Access

      California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's (R) expected focus on health care in 2007 "is likely to boost national attention on one of the most intractable policy dilemmas facing the entire country" because the state "has been a leader in addressing national issues," the Wall Street Journal reports. According to the governor, in his State of the State address on Jan. 9, 2007, he will discuss how he plans to make health care the No. 1 priority of his second term and likely will introduce a plan to provide health coverage for the state's uninsured. Schwarzenegger in a Los Angeles Daily News opinion piece this week wrote, "Every idea is being debated: market-based solutions, employer mandates, individual mandates, new regulations, removing old regulations." However, there is "disagreement" in California and across the nation about how best to improve coverage and reduce costs, the Journal reports. Schwarzenegger this year vetoed legislation that would have created a single-payer health care system overseen by a government agency. In his veto message, the governor wrote that "such a program would cost the state billions and lead to significant new taxes on individuals and businesses." Schwarzenegger's opposition to increasing taxes to pay for health care "could make it difficult for the governor to forge a bipartisan deal," the Journal reports. Earlier this month, state Sen. Pro Tempore Don Perata (D), who helped Schwarzenegger pass a bipartisan infrastructure measure last month, proposed a plan under which employers and their employees would share the costs of providing coverage to the state's working families. According to the Journal, Schwarzenegger "might be able to build on" Perata's "compromise approach." Some of the governor's political opponents, including the Service Employees International Union, also have said they will work with Schwarzenegger to find a solution. SEIU President Andrew Stern said, "I think a successful health care plan in California would begin to be the catalyst to change the country's health care system." Stern added, "People look at California as almost its own country, with all the complexities any state could find" (Carlton, Wall Street Journal, 12/21).