Health Reform Plan Should Not Rest on Ballot Measure
The proposal for a ballot initiative to finance a health care reform plan "should make Californians cringe" and "demonstrates a fundamental failure" by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) and lawmakers "to shoulder their shared responsibility of securing California's future," a San Jose Mercury News editorial states.
If the ballot measure fails, "Californians will have nothing to show for two years of talks on the state's biggest crisis," according to the editorial.
"The primary blame should rest squarely on the shoulders of Senate and Assembly Republicans, who don't seem to care that the entire state is clamoring for health care reform," the editorial states.
With health care premiums doubling since 2000 and "more than half of the state's hospitals operating in the red, ... California cannot afford to wait another year or more to stop this fiscal bleeding from damaging the economic health of the state," according to the editorial.
"The Legislature and governor should do their jobs and vote for a health care reform package that includes a shared funding mechanism," the editorial concludes (San Jose Mercury News, 10/4).