On January 8th, the AP reported something quite interesting. ‘Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday proposed extending health coverage to California's 6.5 million uninsured residents, promising to spread the cost among businesses, individuals, hospitals, insurers and the government. Under Schwarzenegger's plan, all Californians would be required to have insurance, although plans for the poorest people would be subsidized. Businesses with 10 or more employees would have to offer insurance to workers or pay 4 percent of their payroll into a state fund. Smaller businesses would be exempt.’
There are so many questions about this ‘plan’ it’s worrisome. For starters, isn’t this similar to the plan that Hillary Clinton has talked about for years, and is sure to be a part of her platform for her run in ’08? Yes, it is. Looks like Arnold is moving more and more left with each decision. Perhaps he was high on some medication after his skiing accident broke his leg. I would advise him to make sure the pills weren’t given to him by the California Democratic Party.
More questions about this ‘plan’:
Who determines who is too poor to afford health insurance? What is the monetary figure?
This has not been stated. So if you make $25,000 a year do you still have to pay? Or is it only those who make less than $15,000 a year? No numbers were given at the time of this article.
You must also understand that this includes a lot of illegal aliens as well, which is amazing. Health insurance companies track their database via social security #’s. I suppose all of the illegals who will be receiving this for free will just make up a number. I suppose this is one way to find out who is legal and who isn’t, right?
What if you don’t want to pay for health insurance? Such as those people who just work the minimum to get by and don’t really care about health insurance for example.
There are those people who work day-labor, fast food joints, multiple construction jobs for under the table money. This is also technically illegal, but people do it anyway. What if they don’t want health insurance? Under this plan, technically many people will have to pay for it, it isn’t free. It sounds to me like the plan is to insure 1.2 million ‘poor’ people and some people for free. But then again, the Governor’s language is not very clear. It sounds like if you are too poor to pay or don’t want to pay for it, the state will take care of you. So how would this stop anybody from paying in general? Why should I pay, when my neighbor refuses to? Very confusing isn’t it?
What happens when premiums rise in the insurance industry? Will the 4% charged to businesses increase to 10%? 20%? Who will control this? It is apparent that the governor is expanding the size of the state’s government. Certainly there must be control somewhere and the creation of a huge bureaucracy is certainly not conservative in my book. And you can bet insurance companies will have contingency plans for these fees. Those people who can afford it will be paying much more in the long run.
Why aren’t they concentrating on the corruption in many hospitals, with over-billing and crazy fees on their patients first before mandating health care for all? Simply charging hospitals 4% will not stop them from increasing fees.
What exactly is covered under the health care plan from the Gov?
Everything? There are no more co-pays? Prescription drugs are now free? Not so! There is no way that doctors will work without receiving the office co-pay. And I’m sure the pharmaceutical companies would be interested in knowing how much of a discount people will receive on their meds.
As we can see there are a lot of unanswered questions. Although the governor means well and his idea, on the surface, seems like it would help alot of people. His decision on how to pay for this, however, is certainly not a fiscally responsible one.
California Republicans reacted "Imposing a new jobs tax on employers of any size and expanding costly government mandates is the wrong approach," Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines said in a statement, predicting the proposal would "devastate our economy."
The people who can afford the system ultimately will suffer increased costs in the end. There are too many questions with too few answers. The governor should rethink this ‘socialist plan’.