Posted on 01/09/2007 9:43:11 PM PST by SirLinksalot
MONTEREY, Calif.--On Monday, Arnold Schwarzenegger presented his proposal for reducing the number of Californians who lack health insurance. His proposal is almost indistinguishable--except in details--from that of the Democrats who dominate the California Assembly and Senate.
The Democrats tend to favor solutions involving regulations, government spending and taxes, and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata's proposal--the main contending Democrat plan--hits the trifecta. It would require employers to provide health insurance; give them the option of paying a tax instead of providing health insurance; and increase spending by expanding both the Medi-Cal and Healthy Families programs, which provide care to low-income children--including children of illegal immigrants and the disabled.
Mr. Schwarzenegger's solution hits the trifecta also. He would require employers with 10 or more workers to provide health insurance or pay a 4% tax on all wages covered by Social Security: Look for employers with 10 to 12 employees to get creative about outsourcing. And look as well, as Harvard economist Jonathan Gruber has documented, for wages to fall in firms that offer health insurance because of the mandate. Gov. Schwarzenegger would throw in a 2% tax on doctors and a 4% tax on hospitals to help fund Medi-Cal, California's name for Medicaid. And he would expand Medi-Cal to adults earning as much as 100% above the poverty line and to children, even those here illegally, in poor and middle-income families. He hopes, by doing this, to shift $5 billion of Medi-Cal's annual cost to the federal government.
There are two problems with such solutions. First, they infringe on economic freedom, preventing, in Robert Nozick's phrase, "capitalist acts between consenting adults." Second, government solutions rarely work.
Why doesn't increased government power tend to solve the problem of the uninsured? There are two main reasons.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
And thanks to the deductability of state and local taxes, the state of California will get a great big federal tax deduction to help pay for this.
Stupid Republicans had a chance to fix this but never did.
Hey! I'm talking to you, Putnam R-FL!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/09/AR2007010901630.html
On his health-care plan, Schwarzenegger tried to sidestep Republican orthodoxy against higher taxes by calling for an increase in "fees" to pay for expanded state coverage.
"Whether or not a fee is a tax, whatever you call it, in his proposal we would not support it," said state Senate Republican leader Dick Ackerman. "There's some areas in here which we support and some areas we don't support. He's proposing covering illegal immigrants, and that we do not support."
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-me-analysis9jan09,1,5500664.story?coll=la-headlines-politics
Business leaders and conservative lawmakers were not immediately buying the governor's proposal.
"It is disappointing that just 72 hours into his [second term] he's shattered the central campaign pledge upon which he won reelection — not to raise taxes," said state Sen. Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks), who ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor last year with the governor's support.
"I think it's ironic," McClintock continued, "that a governor who just proclaimed himself a centrist would come up with a proposal well to the left of the one presented by Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata," a Democrat from Oakland.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/01/10/news/top_stories/1_01_061_8_07.txt
Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines said in a statement that he opposed requiring businesses to pay taxes in lieu of providing health insurance.
"Imposing a new jobs tax on employers of any size and expanding costly government mandates is the wrong approach, one which will devastate our economy," Villines said. "We continue to agree with the governor's statements in 2004, when he argued that a new jobs tax will be a job killer and force many businesses to lay off workers, move out of state or close their doors for good."
The plan also drew strong reaction from those who oppose state benefits for illegal immigrants. Several local Republican lawmakers, including state Sen. Mark Wyland, R-Carlsbad, said they would oppose enrolling illegal immigrants in state-funded health programs.
"I don't think we should be asking citizens to cover benefits for those who are here illegally," Wyland said.
http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/abox/article_1538709.php
Republicans said tax dollars shouldn't go to help cover uninsured illegal immigrants, estimated at 1 million people by the state.
Schwarzenegger said the federal government requires medical care for illegal immigrants. Instead of providing them with the most expensive – at emergency rooms – the state should provide care efficiently and with less expense through insurance programs, he said.
But Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman of Irvine said uninsured illegal immigrants might number more than 2 million people and that some health care assumptions need to be studied.
"Nobody knows the exact number. I think everybody is making an educated guess," Ackerman said.
The health care debate needs to slow down while the state tries to get better numbers, he said.
Ackerman said Republicans estimate as many as 900,000 people in the state can afford insurance but choose not to buy it and another 900,000 already qualify for programs. If those numbers are correct, he said, the state might not need a program as radical as the governor's.
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/16419206.htm
The administration contends the governor’s plan does not include taxes because the money collected will be recycled specifically into health coverage.
California Chamber of Commerce President Allan Zaremberg, who worked in the administration of two Republican governors, maintains "revenue enhancements" in the plan require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature.
"The payroll tax on employers and the 4 percent and 2 percent charge on hospitals and doctors, require a two-thirds vote," Zaremberg said.
Don't blame the elected, blame the power that enabled them.
Arnie is liking the weekends at the Kennedy compound.
"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
Well, so much for Arnold being a fiscal conservative. That didn't last too long, did it.
This is so out of touch with the reasons he came to be Governor, e.g reducing taxes and repelling illegal immigrant diver's license, and so out of touch with reality of what going to happen by taxing small business which will fold in competition with untaxed underground black labor market. Not to mention a magnet to draw even more illegal black market workers to the US under the hope of free health care. It is astounding that Arnold could be so stupid to set this in motion. The stem cell and global waring stuff were crazy, but this is just plain stupid.
Perhaps not stupid at all, maybe its a ploy to get people outraged, for instance no matter what republicans do, liberals are going to oppose it, and even in this case perhaps the liberals will come out and oppose Arnold in spite. So then when Hillary brings up the same issue nationally CA liberals will have already opposed it, and have it dead on arrival?
Naaa...just wishfully thinking actually things are going down the tubes very fast, this one more proof.
Include private, legal citizens in the invitation. California has an extremely large population. Plenty of Californians would rather not be the *test rats* for Schwrzenegger's proposal.
I can spot new immigrants from California right away. They're the ones jogging around the newer neighborhoods in February. They start panting in April, and by the end of May they've given up jogging!
Margaret Warner and her interviewees were all smirking and gloating at socialism's Inevitable Dialectic Victory.
Der Terminator's Reno-esque ugly-she-male social-services liberalcrat tried to slip the questions about the "new taxes" angle, and tried very hard to "stay on message". I thought she essentially lied. Warner didn't even try to challenge her but just sat there, smirking and glowing.
Beast and Slick failed to get Hillarycare, but they did get the law changed in ways they knew would wreck fee-for-service medicine, by letting the insurance companies into healthcare practices, hospitals, and provider services as proprietors. The insurance companies promptly bought up everything in sight.
Slick and Beast's objective was to bureaucratize medicine. They succeeded.
Step two is, having screwed it up, to take it over.
They want our health in their pockets, basically. That's what this is about. Being "essential" -- so they get leverage over the voters. That is exactly what socialized medicine is about.
As soon as everyone gets accustomed to govt health care, it will be considered deviant to use anything else. And soon after that it will be criminalized.
Good point. I usually dismiss California and the Northeast states' socialist policies as not affecting us down here, but it does, as you pointed out.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.