From the Los Angeles Times
Calif. healthcare overhaul moves forward
An employer-based revamping of the system wins initial
approval in the Legislature, despite unified GOP opposition.
By Jordan
Rau
Times Staff Writer
June 8, 2007
SACRAMENTO — The
Legislature gave initial approval Thursday to a Democratic plan for overhauling
healthcare, despite Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's insistence on bipartisan
cooperation and the unified resistance of his fellow Republicans. The Senate and
Assembly passed — without a single Republican vote — bills that would require
businesses to spend 7.5% of their payrolls on employee healthcare. Democratic
leaders said they would negotiate with Schwarzenegger and the business and
healthcare lobbies in hopes of reaching a deal by the session's end in
mid-September.
But Thursday's debates in the Capitol revealed a chasm
just as wide as it was in January, if not wider.
And Schwarzenegger's
proposal to achieve medical coverage for all Californians, outlined in January,
received another setback. The nonpartisan legislative counsel's office, which
advises lawmakers in both parties, concluded that a core element of
Schwarzenegger's plan — the collection of $3.5 billion from doctors and
hospitals every year — would be a tax, not a fee as the governor has steadfastly
maintained.
That means approval by two-thirds of lawmakers would be
needed for it to pass — not a simple majority, as fees require. Republican votes
would be necessary. And the governor vowed during his reelection campaign that
he would not raise taxes.
Leaders in both parties said there was little
chance that Republicans would go along with the levies. Schwarzenegger has said
those assessments are key to his idea that all sectors of society should share
responsibility for expanding insurance to Californians who lack it.
The
Assembly Democrats' plan passed on a party-line vote of 47-32, with one member
absent. The Senate plan passed 23-16, with one abstention; one Democrat, Lou
Correa of Santa Ana, joined the Republicans in opposition.
The Democratic
plans offer to provide insurance to about 3.4 million people, or 69% of those
without it. Employers who did not spend the equivalent of at least 7.5% of their
payroll on healthcare would have to pay into a state fund that would be used to
help subsidize uncovered workers and the poor.
The plans differ on which
businesses would be exempted from the mandate.
Republicans rejected the
goal of universal healthcare coverage as a "recipe for failure" that would
backfire, driving up insurance rates and drowning businesses with what they
termed a $5-billion tax increase. They said the measures would not tame the
rising costs that have made medical care unaffordable for many.
"How much
do I hate this bill?" Assemblyman Roger Niello (R-Fair Oaks) said, referring to
the Assembly Democrats' legislation. "How can I count the
ways?"
Republicans also bitterly complained that their counter-proposals,
which relied on market forces and incremental reforms, had been dismissed out of
hand by the dominant Democrats. Of more than a dozen such bills, only two passed
either house of the Legislature.
"Our bills were summarily killed on
party-line votes," Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee (R-San Luis Obispo) said in an
interview, echoing his comments on the floor.
Though insisting at a news
conference after the votes that they still would like to work with Republicans,
Democratic leaders laid out a strategy that did not rely on any GOP votes.
Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata of Oakland and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez
of Los Angeles cited last year's global warming law as the model they aspired to
follow. Schwarzenegger and the Democrats negotiated that bill, AB 32, over
strenuous objections of the Republicans and passed it without their
backing.
"We can do the same thing with healthcare," Perata
said.
Adam Mendelsohn, the governor's spokesman, said there was still a
"wide open landscape" on a final healthcare plan.
"This is exactly the
place the governor would hope we would be at this point, which is a statewide
dialogue about healthcare, the table being set for us to work on legislation
this summer that will comprehensively reform California's healthcare system," he
said.
He dismissed the significance of the counsel's opinion, saying that
because the governor has not submitted his proposal as a bill, the lawyers could
not render a definitive account. "You can't definitely say what it is and what
it is not," Mendelsohn said.
But Tim Hodson, executive director of
Sacramento State University's Center for California Studies, said the
Legislature's lawyers are cautious about issuing opinions and that this one
would influence the views of lawmakers.
"This is one of those instances
where rhetoric and spin meet the law," Hodson said.
The administration
has been trying for months to remove opposition in the healthcare community to
the provisions of Schwarzenegger's plan. A deal with the hospital industry is
close, said several people familiar with negotiations, but the doctors lobby has
continued to balk at proposed physicians' contributions.
The Democratic
approach faces fewer obstacles in the Legislature than Schwarzenegger's but may
have legal vulnerabilities because federal law limits what states can do to
compel firms to offer health insurance. Throughout Thursday, Republicans
insisted that the employer mandate would never pass muster in court, while
Democrats said they had fashioned it to survive legal challenges.
Despite
all the disagreements, Michael Villines of Clovis, leader of the Assembly's GOP
members, told reporters his party would support efforts to guarantee insurance
for all California children. He said Republicans also would be open to expanding
state-arranged coverage for people who cannot find private insurance because of
existing health problems — if there was enough state revenue to pay for it
all.
"If this is the No. 1 priority to Assembly Democrats, then c we
should look at cutting something else" to pay for it, Villines said.
But
California's fiscal condition has been deteriorating. The administration
announced Thursday that the state collected $764 million less in taxes last
month than expected. That is likely to complicate state budget negotiations for
the fiscal year that begins next month.
jordan.rau@latimes.com
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(INFOBOX BELOW)
Healthcare
plan provisions
Democrats in the state Assembly and Senate gave initial
approval to similar proposals for changing California's healthcare system.
Common elements of the plans:
Worker insurance:
Employers spend 7.5% of their Social Security payroll wages on
healthcare, or pay into a state fund that arranges insurance. Employees pay a
share of premiums. Exemption for the self-employed.
The
poor: State-subsidized insurance for children of families earning less
than three times the federal poverty level ($61,950 a year for four). Families
above poverty level pay some coverage costs, based on
income.
Insurers: Healthcare companies spend at least
85% of premiums on medical care and publicly reveal profit ratios. Restrictions
on reasons for refusing individual coverage.
Mid-size businesses:
Companies with 51 to 250 workers get the same insurance protection that
small businesses now have. Insurers can neither refuse to renew policies nor
demand giant rate increases.
Cost: At least $8.3 billion
in government, employer and employee spending.
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Source:
California Legislature
Los Angeles Times