Opinion Pieces Examine Governor’s Reform Plan
George Skelton, Los Angeles Times columnist, and Rick Wartzman of the New America Foundation on Monday weighed in on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's (R) health care reform efforts in California.
Summaries appear below.
- Skelton, Los Angeles Times: "In the view of many in Sacramento," universal health care "is the toughest challenge Schwarzenegger has taken on yet -- because of the economic stakes, the billions in government costs and its potential impact on every Californian," George Skelton writes in his "Capitol Journal" column in the Times. "But we really won't know until late summer how skilled [the governor] is at multi-tasking when one task is creating universal health care," he writes. "That's a very big-picture project," Skelton concludes (Skelton, Los Angeles Times, 4/2).
- Wartzman, Los Angeles Times: "To his credit, the governor has proposed that health insurers provide coverage to people regardless of pre-existing conditions," Rick Wartzman, an Irvine senior fellow at the New America Foundation, writes in his "California & Co." column in the Times. "But given the industry's behavior, it's clear that even more vigorous regulatory oversight is needed," Wartzman writes, going on to highlight the case for rate regulation being made by the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (Wartzman, Los Angeles Times, 3/30).