Health care veto is vowed

But Schwarzenegger said he will not sign a plan by Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata as it stands now. Their Democratic proposal, Assembly Bill 8, would require employers to spend 7.5 percent of payroll on employee health care.

"If anyone over there thinks that I will sign a bill that comes down to me that has only employer mandate, they shouldn't," he said. "I won't sign it. It won't happen. Because we will never have a chance again to go back and cover the rest."

The governor in January proposed charging 4 percent on hospital revenues, 2 percent on doctor revenues and 4 percent on employers with at least 10 workers if they do not provide health insurance. He wants to require all Californians to obtain minimum coverage while forcing insurers to cover everyone regardless of pre-existing conditions.

While his aides acknowledged persistent opposition from doctors, Schwarzenegger was more hopeful of reaching agreement with hospitals, describing talks as going in the "right direction."

"We want to have shared responsibility, which is extremely important," he said. "We don't believe we should go back to (legislation) where it is just employer pays. All of those different things that I am talking about, they are connected, the dots are connected. It is like a balancing act, a human pyramid. You take one person out, and the whole thing collapses."

Jan Emerson, spokeswoman for the California Hospital Association, said Wednesday that hospital officials are negotiating with the governor but remain opposed to what she called a "provider tax." She acknowledged that hospitals could see an increase in federal dollars from the governor's plan but that only some hospitals would benefit.

"With this provider tax, there would be winners and there would be losers ... and many losers would be hospitals already on the financial edge," she said.

Doctors say the governor's proposed charge on their revenues is unworkable, said Dustin Corcoran of the California Medical Association.

Spokesmen for Perata and Núñez called on Schwarzenegger to meet in earnest to reach a compromise, suggesting that the governor has yet to do so.

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