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...But it may be a little early for this cliche. Schwarzenegger's plan is ambitious in scope and laudable in its goals, especially in its coverage for all children, including children of illegal immigrants. But the plan has a substantial chunk of devil before you even reach the details. The problem is this: It makes no sense to legally and permanently make Californians' access to healthcare dependent on their employers. Companies hire workers and pay them for their time, talent, muscle and brains. Employers must meet certain standards to do business in the state — complying with workplace safety laws, paying...

SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today proposed upending just about every portion of the healthcare industry in one of the country's most elaborate efforts at holding down medical costs and expanding insurance to those who don't have it. Schwarzenegger's plan, which he publicly unveiled at noon, would require employers with 10 workers or more to buy insurance for their workers or pay a fee of 4% of their payroll into a program to help provide coverage for the uninsured. Schwarzenegger would tax doctors 2% of their gross revenue and place a 4% tax on hospitals. He campaigned for reelection on...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday laid out a sweeping proposal to extend health coverage to nearly all of California's 6.5 million uninsured people, promising to share the cost among businesses, individuals, hospitals, doctors, insurers and government. The plan contains elements that are likely to provoke opposition from a wide range of powerful health care interests, including doctors, hospitals and insurers, as well as employers and unions. But it also contains carrots for each of them. All Californians will be required to have insurance, and all but the smallest businesses will have to offer it to their workers. Insurers will no...

<p>Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has vowed not to increase taxes, contends the money raised from employers, doctors and other stakeholders to pay for the sweeping health care plan he introduced Monday is technically not a tax.</p> <p>But Schwarzenegger's fellow Republicans in the Legislature, his allies at the California Chamber of Commerce and doctors maintain that it is.</p>

Schwarzenegger: Everyone must have health insurance GOVERNOR UNVEILS PLAN TO OVERHAUL HEALTH CARE By Steven Harmon MediaNew Sacramento Bureau SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled a sweeping $12 billion health care plan today that would require all Califonrians to have health insurance. In remarks that he delivered by video conference from Los Angeles, Schwarzenegger insisted covering all Californians was the key to lowering the exploding costs of health care. ``We pay higher deductibles, higher cost for treatment, higher premiums and higher co-pays,'' he said. ``Prices for health care and insurance are rising twice as fast as inflation, twice as fast...

This Monday at 1:30pm, members of the Governor's Administration will host a live video web discussion with stakeholders and members of the public.

Remember the Californian Dream that needed so much protecting just three months ago? That dream where solitary visionaries, like Disney, DeMille, Hewlett and Packard, and Jobs & Wozniak, could work through the night in a garage and create sensational things that could best be summed up by B.C. Forbes who long ago stated, "The purpose of capitalism is not to create a pile of wealth, but a pile of happiness." Remember that that dream was in such danger that the biggest gubernatorial campaign ever imagined was undertaken just to save it? After some really great pomp, humor, dancing kids, and...

Even before Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger formally unveils his health care plan Monday, fellow Republicans in the Legislature are vowing to block any plan that provides coverage for illegal immigrants. Advocates who have been briefed say Schwarzenegger will propose that all children have insurance as part of his plan to increase access for the 6.5 million Californians without insurance. Richard Brown, director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, which compiles the most authoritative count on the uninsured, estimates 13 percent of the 1.1 million children without insurance are illegal immigrants. So a budget stalemate could be looming before the...

We share Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's hope to insure California's kids. Whether they are in this nation illegally or not, minors deserve coverage for this reason alone: They're children. Denying youngsters true access to the health care system - not just swelling emergency rooms - because of decisions made by their parents is cruel. And costly. Preventive care, paid by that proverbial ounce, is less expensive than emergency care paid in pounds of taxpayer flesh. We understand that some of the uninsured are here illegally, and that's wrong, but most of the time immigration decisions are made for them by their...

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will propose that all Californian children, including those in the state illegally, be guaranteed medical insurance as part of the healthcare overhaul he intends to unveil next week, according to officials familiar with the plan. If enacted by the Legislature, his proposal would affect about 763,000 children who now lack insurance. Although the administration has not revealed details of how it would pay for such a program, officials estimate that extending insurance to all children could cost the state as much as $400 million a year. That would be a small piece of Schwarzenegger's stated...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will call for universal insurance for California children in the health care proposal he unveils next week -- but isn't likely to suggest a way to pay for it, advocates who have been briefed on the plan said Wednesday. Of the approximately 6.5 million uninsured in California, about 800,000 are under 18. The governor's plan would cover those children by expanding eligibility for current government health insurance programs, said Jim Keddy of PICO California, a group that is among many lobbying for children's coverage. When he delivers a "state of health care" speech on Monday, the governor...

Despite heightened attention to children's health and education issues, a greater investment needs to be made in California's 9.7 million youngsters so they're prepared to compete as adults, a study released Tuesday says. The annual California Report Card, released by Children Now, says the state has made progress in reducing drug and alcohol use, decreasing teen pregnancies and lowering mortality rates. However, the percentage of children covered by their parents' work-based health insurance is declining; while the rates of smoking, obesity, asthma and autism are on the rise, the report said. "Despite some progress, when you measure that against the...

Public agencies must tell liabilities for workers When Charles Weis took over as superintendent of the Ventura County Office of Education in 1993, he took a look at the agency's employee benefits package and envisioned a potential train wreck far into the future. The agency was promising to pay the health insurance costs for employees after they retired, but it was putting no money aside each year to cover those distant financial liabilities and had no real idea of what those future costs might be. "I ordered the business office staff to buy out those in the program," Weis said....

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Monday that his proposal for reforming California's health care system will not include new taxes, but he did not rule out considering legislative proposals that do. "I'm not telling you now what I would or would not consider," the governor said during a media availability at a Los Angeles hospital when he was asked whether he would approve a solution that included a tax increase.

SACRAMENTO - Already grappling with spiraling annual health costs, some of the largest agencies across California are facing a new squeeze as they're forced to begin fully accounting next year for retiree health-care liabilities. And for the first time, many will have to acknowledge they have accumulated hundreds of billions of dollars in looming costs with no comprehensive way to pay for it other than by cutting strained budgets. Annual health costs for state and local government retirees are expected to total at least $4.5 billion this year and could soar to almost $31.5 billion by 2019, according to a...

Senate leader Don Perata has a plan to provide all uninsured working Californians with Health Insurance at an estimated cost of $5 billion to $7 billion without a tax increase. Okay... The Perata plan would force businesses that do not provide health insurance, and their employees, through a payroll deduction, to pay into a state agency that would attempt to negotiate for "affordable" coverage. When paying taxes, workers would have to show proof of medical insurance. This is just plain wrong on so many levels -- let me count the ways. A plan that is estimated to cost $5 billion...

Staking out the middle ground in the burgeoning health care debate, Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata on Tuesday outlined a plan to cover 4.2 million uninsured Californians, mostly the working poor. Perata's plan would require both employers and employees who do not now have health insurance to start paying for it. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is developing a health care reform proposal, has opposed making employers pay in the past. But Health and Human Services Agency Secretary Kim Belshe said Tuesday that he does not rule out the idea if it is part of a comprehensive health care reform...

Senate President Don Perata's health insurance plan, unveiled today, is a nightmare that sounds good but falls apart under the slightest scrutiny. It's modeled on the Massachusetts plan which compels every working resident to have insurance and requires most businesses to provide insurance. A big state insurance pool would be formed which would offer the public different insurance options. But the Perata plan ignores all the informed criticism of the Massachusetts plan that has emerged as more economists and businesses have taken a close look at it. I just finished a conference call with Perata's staff, and all the buyer's...