Editorial: Health-care hope
San Francisco Chronicle Editorial
IS THERE any hope for health care reform? The regular legislative session is winding up. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's $12 billion plan - which would require all individuals to purchase coverage and levy a 4 percent tax on employers to help fund coverage for the poor - has yet to garner any Republican support or even make it onto the floor as legislation. The one health care plan that has been signed - a Democratic initiative that would provide coverage to about 70 percent of the state's uninsured, in part through a 7.5 percent payroll tax on employers who don't currently offer employee coverage - is dead in the water, as the governor has promised to veto it.
It doesn't look promising. But this is still the best opportunity California has had in a very long time.
Only a year ago, the Legislature was passing SB840, which mandated a state-run universal health care system, and the governor had no plan of his own to fix California's crippling problems with health care. It may not seem like it, but we've come a long way. [...]
The biggest issues of contention seem to be how much to charge employers (again, not an impossible obstacle, since both plans agree on the necessity of charging them) and whether or not individuals should have to purchase coverage.
The issue is critical enough that legislators and the governor should stay at the table and try to forge a bill during the upcoming special session.
September 12, 2007 at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Blog Reactions
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