Health Care Reform Talks Should Not Ignore Details

Summaries of an editorial and opinion piece regarding health care reform in California appear below.

• San Diego Union-Tribune: "[Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R)] is apparently willing to pay a de facto multibillion-dollar bribe using taxpayers' money to the California Teachers Association ... to win the CTA's support for his (health care reform) proposal," a Union-Tribune editorial states. However, most California voters "probably have never heard of" this payment and no California newspapers have covered the issue, according to the editorial. "In an overhaul of something as crucial as state health care, the details matter enormously" and "should be explored openly and thoroughly," the editorial states (San Diego Union-Tribune, 10/7).
• Ken Jacobs, Sacramento Bee: "[A]s the public and our elected representatives debate health care reform, it's critical that we not lose sight of" the fact that "more than 6.5 million Californians had no health insurance of any sort, for all or part of the last year," Jacobs, chair of the Center for Labor Research and Education at UC-Berkeley, writes in a Bee opinion piece. "The cost of health insurance, to businesses and employees, keeps going up, while the benefits keep shrinking," Jacobs writes. "The numbers make it clear: The cost to Californians of doing nothing now far exceeds the cost of health care reform" (Jacobs, Sacramento Bee, 10/7).