Schwarzenegger Co-Moderates White House Health Care Forum
Today, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) and Washington state Gov. Chris Gregoire (D) will co-moderate President Obama's fifth Regional White House Forum on Health Reform in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
The event will be broadcast to locations in Oakland, San Diego and Clovis via satellite and will be webcast on the governor's homepage (Yi, San Francisco Chronicle, 4/5). In addition, the governor's office will hold an online Q&A session beginning at 2:30 p.m. (Office of the Governor release, 4/5).
Lisa Page, a spokesperson for Gov. Schwarzenegger, said forum participants include:
- Public officials;
- Health care industry representatives;
- Patient advocacy groups;
- Physicians; and
- Patients (San Francisco Chronicle, 4/5).
Blue Shield of California Weighs in
Although today's forum "is more hopeful because it has the imprimatur of a popular new president," the event "is burdened by our country's discouraging legacy of inaction on what should be a basic American right -- access to quality health care," Bruce Bodaken, chair and CEO of Blue Shield of California, writes in a San Diego Union-Tribune opinion piece.
Bodaken cites failed efforts at health care reform in California to argue that "nothing can be off the table" in discussions of national health care reform and that "every organization has to be prepared to give up something they hold dear" (Bodaken, San Diego Union-Tribune, 4/6). This is part of the California Healthline Daily Edition, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.