"So far, I think the emperor has some clothes, but not a full wardrobe," says Sen. Sheila Kuehl, commenting on the governor's health care proposal.
Posted on 02/15/2007 8:03:07 AM PST by SmithL
A state Senate panel is expected today to begin the first formal scrutiny of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's sweeping proposal for overhauling health care in California.
Wielding the gavel at the Health Committee hearing will be a member of the Legislature who believes many of the governor's ideas won't work.
State Sen. Sheila Kuehl isn't rushing to judgment. For the past four years, the Santa Monica Democrat has studied health care while pushing California to abolish private insurance and replace it with universal coverage administered by the state. Schwarzenegger last year vetoed Senate Bill 840, Kuehl's bill establishing such a single-payer system.
Schwarzenegger criticized Kuehl's solution as "government-run health care." Now, it's Kuehl's turn to examine the Republican governor's plan, a very different approach that would actually increase the number of insurance customers by the millions.
"My role on these proposals is to to say, 'These are the facts,' " Kuehl said Wednesday. "So far, I think the emperor has some clothes, but not a full wardrobe."
Schwarzenegger has proposed covering the estimated 6.5 million uninsured in California by requiring individuals to buy coverage, employers to help pay for it, and insurers to sell it to anyone who wants it. Doctors and hospitals would also be asked to chip in to help fund the estimated $12 billion expansion of the health care system.
Kuehl, a critic of the profits made by the insurance industry, says she's most concerned about an element of the governor's proposal that she feels has received little attention so far: the requirement that state residents must buy insurance. The poorest would be eligible for fully or partially subsidized coverage, but Kuehl believes purchasing mandatory insurance could be onerous for some working families.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Strange bedfellows indeed,, Kuehl and the Gubinator.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
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