Arnold's Health Care Legislation: We Waited This Long For This?
Months ago, Arnold introduced his official health care plan. Only it was not an actual usable piece of legislation. He could not find a single legislator willing to flesh it out into a real bill and introduce it in the Assembly or Senate. Now, for some reason he is insisting he has actual legislation, a revised more detailed version of his original plan. And still it is orphan legislation, without a legislative sponsor. And still it is unacceptable to all sides. There is no way that this thing actually gets passed as written. SFChron:
The governor unveiled a revised health care plan that included leasing the state lottery to a private company to help pay for expanding coverage to uninsured residents and give a tax break to low- and middle-class families.
But the proposed changes drew only a passive response from Democratic leaders, while consumer and labor groups said the plan does not do enough to protect the working poor from escalating costs.
The key is affordability. Individual mandates are unacceptable if people are forced to purchase insurance they cannot afford and does little in terms of actually covering health care costs. Of course, he is claiming that he already solved that problem.
Schwarzenegger's new plan would provide a tax credit that would be worth about $2,000 a year for a family of four earning up to $72,000 a year.
"We think we've taken a significant step toward increasing the affordability of health coverage for low- and middle-income Californians," said Amy Palmer, spokeswoman for the state Health and Human Services Agency.
Uh. No. Not good enough. Not even close. While Nunez and Perata put out non-committal statements, labor leaders were more blunt.
"He's leaving the middle class out in the cold," said Art Pulaski, executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO. "He's offering some support for individuals making up to $35,000 a year, but if you make more than that, there's not support but you are still expected to go out and buy a policy in the individual market."
The individual market is inefficient. Group purchasing drives down costs, as it spreads risk across a larger population. AB8 goes much further in terms of creating large pools that individuals can participate in.
And of course, Arnold is relying on gimmics to help pay for it. This time, he has gone back into the privatize the lottery for more revenue.
Another key change in the governor's plan would lease the state lottery to a private company and use the new revenue to help pay for expanded coverage. The governor's office expects the lottery could generate $2 billion a year for health care.
Schwarzenegger also introduced a sliding scale for determining the cost employers would be asked to pay for worker coverage.
Rather than requiring all employers to pay a 4 percent payroll tax, the governor wants contributions based on the size of a company's payroll. For example, a small firm with highly paid employees would pay more than a similar size company of low wage earners.
Employers providing health insurance for their staff are already paying 7-8% of payroll to cover health care costs. It is beyond me how Arnold thinks that halving, or quartering that is going to pay for health care coverage. The numbers just don't work. Keeping it that low will encourage employers to drop their health care coverage, not add it.
Consider this to be the latest bargaining position for Arnold. The Democrats have AB8, which he vetoed today as their base position. Time is of the essence now. It's make or break it for health care reform. Will they get it done? Millions of Californians are counting on them.