Daniel Weintraub: The death of health care reform

Sacramento Bee ^ | 2/11/8 | Daniel Weintraub

[SmithL]

How Arnold Schwarzenegger's overhaul plan was doomed by the Legislature's liberal-conservative partisan crossfire --

The defeat last month of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal to overhaul California's health care industry was a disappointing failure for the governor on the one issue he had put at the top of his agenda for an entire year. But the proposal's demise was also a vivid confirmation of Schwarzenegger's diagnosis of what ails the Legislature. The bill died in a partisan crossfire, opposed from the beginning by conservative Republicans and ultimately killed by liberal Democrats. It was a centrist approach in a Capitol where centrism has become a dirty word.

The bill did not suffer from a lack of public support. Poll after poll showed that Californians wanted the government to do more to expand access to health care and to regulate the practices of private insurance companies. The basic outline of the governor's plan – a requirement that every Californian have insurance, with the costs shared by employers, health care providers and individuals themselves – attracted the support of 60 percent to 70 percent of those surveyed by the Public Policy Institute of California in several polls taken during 2007.

But it could not win a majority in a Legislature dominated by ideological purists on the left and the right. Democrats in the Legislature generally favor a single-payer program modeled after the one in Canada, where private insurance is banned and the government decides which benefits people will get and negotiates directly with doctors and hospitals to determine how much they will be paid. Republicans in the Legislature want to move in exactly the opposite direction, reducing the regulation of health care and private insurance while letting economic markets work more vigorously to increase competition and bring down prices.

Schwarzenegger's plan did neither....

[Leisler]

[eleni121]

Hats off to the “ideological purists on the right”!

[RKV]

Daniel is deliberately clueless sometimes. The state has no money for this nonsense. Der, Danny. Wake up.

[PeterFinn]

It never occured to Weintraub that Arnold may not have really wanted this to pass at all. He didn’t go out stumping to support it, he did no big media blitz to support it and he also made almost no commentary on the opponents of the measure. Personally, I think Arnold is happy this died as it is one less budget headache for him to deal with come June.

[socialismisinsidious]

Socialized Medicine aka Universal Health Care PING LIST

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[socialismisinsidious]

Poll after poll showed that Californians wanted the government to do more to expand access to health care

No kidding. People love socialism when they are on the receiving end of it and someone else is footing the bill. When they momentarily wake up and realize that the government doesn't generate ONE freaking red cent, they have to TAKE it from them in order to "expand access" well then not so much.

[SierraWasp]

"Schwarzenegger's plan did neither...."

I LOVE GovernMental GRIDLOCK!!!

[calcowgirl]

Weintraub is really starting to irritate me.

This is just dribble.

[calcowgirl]

drivel... Duh!

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

It’s dribble too... down his chin! Weintraub has gone soft!