Schwarzenegger Would Address Health Care in Second Term
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) on Thursday in an interview with the Sacramento Bee said he supports efforts to expand health insurance coverage but does not endorse efforts to create a government-run health care system. "I don't believe in universal health care, but I do believe we have to make an effort to insure more people," the governor said.
Schwarzenegger said he would work to expand coverage and if re-elected would aim to present a plan to legislators at his state of the state address in January. He said that he supports all California residents having health insurance but that expanding coverage to two million to three million currently uninsured state residents is a realistic goal. Schwarzenegger said, "It's impossible, maybe, to insure everybody ... but I think if you shoot for that, you can at least insure half of the people right now that are uninsured."
Schwarzenegger said he would work to encourage health care providers to make health insurance more affordable and offered as one strategy to expand coverage a plan to develop different insurance programs based on individual characteristics, such as whether members smoke.
In an hour-long meeting with the Bee editorial board, the governor pledged not to increase taxes and discussed education and prisons (Yamamura, Sacramento Bee, 7/7).
Referencing Schwarzenegger's visit to Fresno on Wednesday where he voiced support for children's health care, the Fresno Bee in an editorial states that it "support[s] wholeheartedly" the governor's goal of expanding children's health insurance coverage. "Forcing children to go without health care is indefensible, no matter what ideological imperatives control the political debate," the editorial states, adding that expanding Healthy Families, Medi-Cal and county Healthy Kids programs "is essential" (Fresno Bee, 7/7).
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