Television Advertisements Tout Perata Health Care Plan
Senate President Pro Tempore Don Perata (D-Oakland) has begun airing an advertisement discussing his health care reform proposal, the Oakland Tribune reports (Richman, Oakland Tribune, 1/24).
Perata in December 2006 proposed a health care plan that he estimates would extend coverage to 4.2 million uninsured California workers and their dependents by requiring contributions from both employers and employees. The proposal also calls for Medi-Cal and Healthy Families to be expanded (California Healthline, 12/13/06).
The ads direct viewers to a Web site for more information on the proposal. The 30-second ads are airing on broadcast and cable stations in Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Perata is chair of Leadership California, the campaign committee that funded the ads (Oakland Tribune, 1/24). Catholic Healthcare West has contributed $25,000 to the committee since the November 2006 election.
Paul Hefner, a spokesperson for Perata, said he did not know if other health care stakeholders had made donations for the new ads or whether the ads were financed using unspent funds from 2006 fundraising efforts (York, Capitol Weekly, 1/23).
To help distinguish among the health care proposals offered by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), Perata and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles), the Senate Office of Research has published a comparison of the three plans (Oakland Tribune, 1/24).
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