Posted on 01/31/2007 10:14:17 AM PST by NormsRevenge
That so many U.S. residents lack health insurance is both a national disgrace and an onerous drag on the economy. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger deserves credit for helping focus the country on this problem. We doubt Republicans in the state Senate would have put forward their own proposal yesterday if the governor hadn't first raised the issue.
That said, the Senate GOP plan is vastly more honest and realistic than Schwarzenegger's. It would:
Provide tax and regulatory incentives for businesses to offer insurance to employees and tax incentives for individuals without coverage to buy insurance.
Loosen state rules to allow a much greater variety of health insurance options, so insurers could offer plans designed for specific segments of the population instead of costly one-size-fits-all policies.
Consumers, not bureaucrats, should be the biggest influence on provider networks, mandates, benefits, co-payments and deductible levels, etc. Competition has worked wonders in every other industry; why not finally try it in the health field?
Reallocate some state spending to sharply increase the number of community clinics and allow hospitals to steer patients with minor ailments from emergency rooms to clinics or primary care.
Increase reimbursements to prompt more doctors to provide Medi-Cal coverage.
Unlike the governor's plan, the Senate GOP plan's goal is not to make sure every one of the 6.5 million state residents who were without health insurance at some point in the last 12 months is covered. Its focus is on access.
Inevitably, this will be depicted as hard-hearted or insufficiently ambitious or both. But at some point, supporters of Schwarzenegger's plan are going to have to face up to its huge fundamental flaws. Here are five:
It would give businesses a huge incentive to drop their coverage for a cheaper state version inevitably subsidized by taxpayers.
It is justified by estimates of mid-and long-range health cost savings with so little factual underpinning they might as well have been picked at random.
It depends on the courts and the Legislature going along with the fiction that a 4 percent tax on businesses is a fee.
It depends on the courts holding that the governor's plan does not violate a 1974 federal law that says companies can offer uniform benefits nationwide and not be subject to state edicts. A Maryland law forcing Wal-Mart to upgrade its benefits was just thrown out because of this law.
It depends on the astonishing assumption that Congress and federal bureaucrats will hand over $3.7 billion in annual funding to cover nearly one-third of the plan's total cost.
These five are all serious, thoughtful, practical concerns – not straw men trotted out in service of an ideological objection to big government. Especially given the state's history with ambitious initiatives – think of our disastrous energy policy follies – California's leaders should be far more cautious before overhauling an entire industry. Senate Republicans, at least, understand this.
And thankfully, the media is beginning to notice that they are not one and the same.
Now, hopefully, they will stop calling the Gubs adoption of the Democrat's platform bipartisanship.
Careful now, a 'Post-Partisan' hack might take offense and release greenhouse gas at ya.
It's like having FReddie Krueger as Gubinor... and Maria is.. well, I'll stop there..
The political presence of Schwarzenegger has been difficult for California's MSM to handle. He's popular and liberal. Thankfully for them, he's also a registered Republican.
Initially they tried to attack him personally but his popularity simply overwhelmed their assault. Then they fell back to their proved bogeyman strategy: He's a Republican.
Schwarzenegger's policies are usually also immunized against press attack because those policies are usually liberal and generally complex. Neither of which makes for an easy target in an age of sound bites and third grade audiences. The fall back is always his party registration.
The press can't admit:
1) He's a liberal
2) His policies are liberal
3) He's allied with Democrats the majority of the time.
If they do they've lost their only effective tool: The registration hammer and it's unspoken implication of conservatism.
Until and unless Schwarzenegger changes his party registration he will always be one and the same in the MSM.
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