CA Health Care Provision May Fail

Speaking of health care proposals, CA's latest attempt to insure the uninsured is in trouble and may fail in committee. From Kaiser Network's Daily Reports:

The health care reform legislation (ABX1 1) crafted by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) and state General Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D) is "likely to die quietly" in a Senate Health Committee hearing on Monday, "barring a dramatic intervention" from state Senate Pro Tempore Don Perata (D), the San Francisco Chronicle reports (Chorneau, San Francisco Chronicle, 1/28). The California General Assembly in December 2007 voted 46-31 along party lines to approve the legislation, which would require most state residents to obtain health coverage. The 14 billion measure aims to cover more than 70% of the state's 6.6 million uninsured residents (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 12/18/07).

The bill needs six votes in the health committee to progress to the full state Senate. The committee's four Republican members are expected to vote against the bill and two Democrats, committee Chair Sen. Sheila Kuehl and state Sen. Leland Yee, have withdrawn their support for the bill (San Francisco Chronicle, 1/28). Kuehl said that Democrats in the state General Assembly did not carefully analyze the bill before passing it and that the bill "ought to have an airing" in the state Senate. Kuehl expressed concern about the findings of a recently released report by the state's Legislative Analyst's Office that found that by fiscal year 2014-2015, the annual cost of the program could exceed revenue by 300 million to 1.5 billion (McKinley, New York Times, 1/28).

Yee said that he opposes the bill because excess costs might have to be absorbed by taxpayers and because of the insurance mandate, which he believes will be too costly for some families, according to the Chronicle (San Francisco Chronicle, 1/28).

According to Media News/Contra Costa Times, even if the committee passes the bill, there are "doubts about whether it would fare any better in the full Senate, where only five Democratic 'no' votes would kill the bill." If passed by the Senate, the financing elements of the plan would need to be ratified in a ballot referendum in November (Zapler, Media News/Contra Costa Times, 1/27). The "demise" of the health care reform package in California likely will "have big impacts on the national scene because many activists had hoped the plan would at least make it to the November ballot and spur debate on its merits within the presidential election," according to the Chronicle (San Francisco Chronicle, 1/28).  

Note previous post on health reform and difficulty with getting it done. Also re Sunday's post (on recession and the health care safety net) check out Coalition Calls for State Medicaid Aid in Economic Stimulus Package.

A coalition of more than 70 unions, health care organizations and community groups is lobbying Congress to include a temporary increase in the federal medical assistance percentage for Medicaid in an economic stimulus package, CongressDaily reports. The coalition on Thursday in a letter to House and Senate leaders wrote, "To avert slashing fire, police and education in response to falling property tax revenues, many local governments are now beseeching their states to help fill the gap. But that puts an even greater pressure at the state level on programs like (SCHIP) and Medicaid" (Johnson, CongressDaily, 1/25).