Stakeholders Show Confidence in Health Care Reform Plans
Representatives of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Los Angeles) and other lawmakers advocating an overhaul of California's health care system touted their respective proposals on Wednesday on Capital Public Radio's "Insight."
Health care reform could become the central issue in the Legislature once lawmakers complete work on the budget, according to "Insight."
Guests on the program included:
- Assembly member Dave Jones (D-Sacramento), who is carrying legislation to regulate health insurance rates;
- Sen. Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks);
- John Ramey, senior health policy consultant for the Office of the Governor; and
- Sara Rogers, a health care consultant for Kuehl (Callison/Russ, "Insight," Capital Public Radio, 6/5).
Audio of the segment is available online.
Treasurer Bill Lockyer (D) has offered a theory that enactment of a health care reform plan by Schwarzenegger could spur Congress to modify provisions of a federal law that bars states from mandating businesses to offer specific benefits, according to a San Diego Union-Tribune editorial.
No state law that would enact such requirements has withstood a court challenge under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, the editorial states. However, the editorial states that Congress might "want to share the credit if California breaks new ground" in health care reform.
Alternatively, some political analysts speculate that Schwarzenegger is less concerned with the legality of his reform plan than he is with "burnishing his image as a 'post partisan' visionary going places where no Republican has gone before," according to the editorial (San Diego Union-Tribune, 6/6).