Posted on 05/28/2009 7:57:59 AM PDT by SmithL
In a much different environment two years ago, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger kicked off his second term by pledging to reshape health care in California.
The governor is on the verge of doing so – but hardly in the way he envisioned.
To shrink a $24.3 billion deficit, Schwarzenegger this week asked legislators to make California the first state to eliminate government health coverage for low- to moderate-income children. Schwarzenegger hopes to save $305 million in 2009-10 by closing the state's Healthy Families program, which provides medical, dental and vision care to more than 900,000 children.
The state provides only about a third of the program's overall funding, as the federal government pays two dollars for every dollar California spends – funding that would be lost. President Barack Obama made the federal program such a priority that he signed legislation to expand it during his first month in office.
Advocates say the governor's proposal couldn't come at a worse time because Healthy Families provides a safety net when one or both parents lose employer-based health care. The state had 15 percent more enrollments through the first four months this year than it did last year.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Because god forbid California cut State salaries or remove wasteful budget line-items or reduce the number of state government employees.
Good it’s about time the parents start taking care of the children they produced. Use a condom if you can’t support a family in all their needs.
The state spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year building soundwalls along the freeway and I’ve never seen this rolled back in tight years. You’d think that at this point they’d just stop for a while...
I love the way they build a highway, then come back in, cut it up, install trees and flowers, while rationing water to homeowners.
I don't know how many times I have seen new widened streets put in, then they come back, destroy the road to put in larger sewer, water lines, then put the bumpy road back together.
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