Los Angeles Times Editorial Endorses Bill to Reduce Uninsured

An "audacious" bill (AB 32) backed by Assembly member Keith Richman (R-Northridge) and Sen. Liz Figueroa (D-Fremont) would cut California's uninsured population by half and should be signed by Gov. Gray Davis (D) if it reaches his desk, a Los Angeles Times editorial states. The measure would allocate up to $1.8 billion a year to create CalHealth, a program that would combine Medi-Cal and Healthy Families. In addition, the bill would make "low-cost health insurance pools available to small businesses, ... would encorage employer participation" and would ask the Bush administration to give California a waiver to "use some of its $855 million a year in Healthy Families funding to cover low-income parents." The editorial notes that the bill's "price tag" could "cause heart palpitations among the budget conscious," but adds that the measure, which would "provid[e] millions with preventive care," will "pay for itself by reducing the $6 billion to $7 billion that the state and counties now spend treating sick people" in hospitals, emergency rooms and clinics. The editorial states that "Davis advisers fret that AB 32 could drag the state into a money pit" if the Bush administration does not approve the waiver. The editorial, however, notes that the bill "erects a solid guardrail" -- a provision negating the bill's implementation if the waiver is not approved. The editorial concludes that even if that occurs, "California will have distinguished itself by making a powerful bipartisan statement: The broken health care system can and must be fixed" (Los Angeles Times, 9/5).