I gotta side against Lou Dobbs, he makes everything an illegal alien issue... 
This aint it... Yea I'm with him on the problem but good god man Lou's dead wrong attacking Arnold on this as an illegal alien issue Lou can be such an idiot sometimes...
Medical overhaul planned for California
GOVERNOR'S PROPOSAL: `EVERYONE HAS TO CHIP IN' FOR UNIVERSAL COVERAGE
By Mike Zapler and Barbara Feder Ostrov
MediaNews Sacramento Bureau
SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday unveiled a dramatic plan for universal health insurance in California that would force most businesses to cover their workers, make insurance companies accept people with existing illnesses and require everyone to obtain coverage through work or on their own.
The Republican governor's proposal puts the state at the national forefront of efforts to reform the health care system, which leaves an estimated 6.5 million Californians uninsured and foists spiraling costs on everyone else.
In calling for ``shared responsibility'' to solve the health care crisis, the Republican governor's proposal demands big contributions from some of the state's most powerful business and health interests. It also assumes that by providing health insurance to all, the cost of providing care to the uninsured -- often in emergency rooms -- will be reduced.
``We will fix California's broken health care system,'' Schwarzenegger pledged in an announcement broadcast via video feed from Los Angeles, where he is nursing a broken leg, ``and create a model that can be used by the rest of the nation.''
Experts said Schwarzenegger's plan is by far the most sweeping health reform proposal that any state has attempted recently. Massachusetts passed universal health coverage legislation last year, but California's size and its sheer number of people without coverage -- who are poorer than Massachusetts' uninsured -- make its task more daunting.
``It would certainly make California the leader in the nation among states in addressing the problems of health care that Congress and the Bush administration have refused to address,'' said E. Richard Brown, director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.
The proposal would require all Californians to have insurance, similar to the way drivers must obtain auto insurance, employing a multi-pronged strategy to reach universal coverage.
`Pay or play'
Businesses with 10 or more employees would have to provide health coverage for their workers or pay the state 4 percent of its payroll -- a concept previously rejected by Schwarzenegger known as ``pay or play.'' Insurers and hospitals would have to devote 85 cents of every dollar in premiums and health spending to patient care. Eligibility rules for the state's health program for the poor would be eased in order to cover all uninsured children, including those of illegal immigrants. The state would subsidize coverage for an estimated 1.2 million adults who don't currently qualify for coverage in Medi-Cal, the state health insurance program for the poor.
The plan also includes new costs for hospitals and doctors, which would have to pay 4 percent and 2 percent of their gross revenues to the state, respectively. It would take away $2 billion in state money that county hospitals receive for indigent care and use it to insure more people in Medi-Cal. In return, Schwarzenegger wants to boost historically low reimbursement rates for Medi-Cal to doctors and hospitals.
And he argued that the insurance mandate would bring millions of new customers to insurers, softening the blow of other aspects of the plan.
``Everyone is left with a better deal here,'' the governor said, ``even though everyone has to chip in.''
Though certainly there will be much debate over the details, criticism of Schwarzenegger's complex proposal was somewhat restrained Monday. Health industry and business interests -- including loyal supporters that have contributed heavily to Schwarzenegger and his political causes -- worked to assess its wide-ranging practical and political implications. But in one early sign of hope for the governor, one of the Legislature's most powerful Democrats, Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, gave the Republican governor's plan a glowing review.
``I can tell you today with certainty,'' Núñez said, ``that in 2007 the California Legislature and the governor will produce health care reform that ensures that each and every Californian has access to a good health care coverage in this state.''
Schwarzenegger may have a harder time winning over Republicans, who called the plan a tax on businesses, hospitals and doctors. But Schwarzenegger administration officials insisted that the plan does not raise taxes and therefore would need a majority, not a two-thirds, vote. If that opinion holds up, it could diminish Schwarzenegger's own party's role in the debate.
Still, health care reform is notoriously complex and difficult to achieve, affecting an array of savvy, well-heeled interests. Business, health industry, labor and consumer groups went out of their way to praise the governor's ambitions and certain components of his plan, but are sure to step up their opposition to planks they deem harmful.
Labor and consumer groups Monday zeroed in on the individual insurance mandate, arguing that it would saddle hundreds of thousands of residents who don't get insurance at work with health insurance bills they can't afford.
``It's a tax on the middle class,'' said Art Pulaski, executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation.
Tax hikes feared
Others said the proposed 4 percent contribution required from businesses that don't provide insurance for their workers is too low.
But California Chamber of Commerce President Allan Zaremberg worried that the proposal would hurt small businesses and wouldn't generate enough money to reach universal coverage. That, he said, could increase pressure for future tax increases.
Insurance companies focused on the mandates to insure people with existing illnesses, and to spend 85 percent of dollars from premiums on patient care, with the rest for administrative costs and profit. ``It really becomes a form of rate regulation,'' said Chris Ohman, chief executive of the California Association of Health Plans.
And doctors and hospital groups were wary of the contributions the plan would impose on them, as well as proposals to redirect state money for indigent care. For example Kim Roberts, acting executive director of Santa Clara County's public hospital and clinics, applauded the emphasis on health insurance for everyone. But she worried about losing state grants to care for the poor before their new coverage kicks in.
The proposal works in concept, she said, but since almost one-third of the hospital's patients have no insurance of any kind, ``we'd need a lot of people to get health insurance before we'd see it tip in our favor.''
