CA Labor Fed Proves It: Individual Mandates are Unaffordable

by Robert in Monterey [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

The California Labor Federation has crunched the numbers, and delivered the verdict on Arnold Schwarzenegger's health care plan: "Unfair, Unaffordable, and Unacceptable". Frank Russo has a comprehensive summary posted:

Any Californian earning over $36,000 a year (just over 350% of the poverty level) will receive no help paying for insurance. Similarly, an uninsured single mother with two children, earning $61,000 a year, would be left to pay all her household expenses and the full cost of health care for her family....

Recent research has shown that the expected levels of family contributions in Governor Schwarzenegger's health proposal are high enough to wipe out the life savings of 60% of California families...

Governor Schwarzenegger's proposed health care plan looks like it will cost the average middle class family between $8,100 and $13,000 a year, forcing many Californians to choose between their financial security or breaking the law.

The Labor Fed's analysis is damning. Coming on the heels of the California Budget Project study that showed a family of four needs to make at least $70,000 to meet its basic costs, this analysis should prove that Arnold's plan is not a reform at all - but a bombshell that will shove millions of Californians into bankruptcy.

The individual mandate would require Californians to spend money they don't have, for coverage that lacks firm deductible caps and has an out-of-pocket limit ($10,000) that would ruin many families well before they reached that limit. It also "would fail to shield 60% of the state" from catastrophic illness costs, even while forcing them to fork over their life savings and a crippling chunk of their paycheck.
There should be little argument now - Arnold's plan, like any individual mandate plan, is an unaffordable disaster that California must avoid. If we are truly interested in helping Californians get affordable health care, we need to put all our effort behind universal single-payer care. That is the only method by which everyone will get health care they can afford.