[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Randy Bayne
The Bayne of Blog's California Notes

In a town hall meeting to discuss health care, Assemblymember Alan Nakanishi accused labor of killing health savings account legislation because "they care about the poor who can't afford it." By "it" he means health savings accounts, his pet solution to the health care crisis.

That was about the most substantive thing in an hour long town hall meeting attended by about 40 people in Jackson. Managing to avoid spending too much time on the advertised subject of the town hall, Nakanishi started with a lesson on how a bill becomes a law. As far as I can gather, he was trying to explain how hard it is to get legislation through the system. Granted, it isn't an easy process, but neither should it be.

Copies of four bills on health care that Nakanishi is carrying in the special session were available, but only passing reference was made to them. These four are tailored to express the Republican opinion that health savings accounts are the solution to the health care crisis. This is when he blamed unions, working Californians, for the failure to pass health savings account legislation by saying, "they care about the poor who can't afford it."

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Anthony Wright
Executive Director of Health Access California

Susan Brink at the LA Times has a lengthy overview of the SCHIP children's coverage crisis, from the point of view of one middle-class family that isn't eligible for children's coverage now, but their kids would be covered under the reform proposals by Governor Schwarzenegger and the legislative leadership, if the federal government gets around to funding the program.

More on the political side, there's an important article by Zachery Coile at the San Francisco Chronicle describing the awful choices that California has with regard to the SCHIP discussion: without a resolution in DC, California is on the brink of disenrolling hundreds of thousands of children from the current program.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Anthony Wright
Executive Director of Health Access California

So I have a love/hate relationship with Massachusetts.

I am a Bronxite who roots for the Yankees, and I'm beside myself that the Red Sox won the World Series. But I have fond memories going to college at Amherst, and loved the formal close of our Commencement, with the banging of a large staff and the pronouncement: "God save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts."

On health policy, I was happy that Massachusetts helped focus attention on state reforms for expanding coverage, although I remind folks that California was one percentage point away a few years earlier, in 2003, with SB2 and Prop 72.

On the actual reform plan, it's not our place to support or oppose the Massachusetts plan, but we have produced both discussion papers and fact sheets that discuss the various provisions, and to make clear the major differences between our two states.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Randy Bayne
The Bayne of Blog's California Notes

Congress voted once again today to reauthorize the State Children Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The vote on H.R. 3963 was 265 yeas to 142 nays.

The new version of SCHIP attempts to address concerns raised by President Bush and House Republicans. According to a press release from Congressman Jerry McNerney's office, there are several changes to this bill that did not appear in previous versions:

• SCHIP coverage will be permitted for children only from families who earn less than 300 percent of the poverty level.

• In order to ensure that lowest-income children are covered first, the states will only receive bonus payments for enrolling eligible children in Medicaid, in this case California’s MediCal program.

• The revised bill goes even further that previous versions in clarifying that the legislation does not allow illegal immigrants to get SCHIP:

• If the Social Security Administration cannot confirm an applicant’s citizenship, the applicant will be required to provide the state with additional documentation to confirm eligibility.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

• Essentially the January Proposal: Individual Mandate, Public Program Expansion
• Some Changes Include: Tax Credit Intent; Revenues from Leasing the Lottery
• Lack of Movement on Key Issues, Including Affordability of Out-of-Pocket Costs

By Anthony Wright
Executive Director of Health Access California

At a Tuesday afternoon press conference earlier this week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger released more than 200 pages of legislative language regarding his health reform proposal.

This is the first major release of additional detail from the Governor since January, when Schwarzenegger released a 10-page concept paper he viewed as a blueprint to health care reform in the state.

PROCESS: He said he hoped the conclude negotiations in the next few weeks, pass legislation this month, and then promote a November 2008 ballot measure that would have the financing elements which would pay for reforms and allow them to be enacted.

The language, he said, “reflects months of negotiations’’ and is the “product of more than a year of discussions and negotiations.’’ Schwarzenegger said he and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez have been negotiating heavily and feels “There’s a will to fix it. Therefore we will get it done.’’

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Hanh Kim Quach
Health Care Policy Coordinator
Health Access California

The California Senate and Assembly passed historic health care reform legislation Monday. If signed into law, AB 8 (Nunez/Perata), would mark the most significant health care expansion since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s. For the fourth time in five years, the California legislature has distinguished itself from those of most other states by passing major health reform.

Yet even before the debate on AB 8 (Nunez/Perata) was finished in the Assembly, however, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced -- though not unexpectedly -- that he would veto the bill and call the Legislature back to work in a “special session’’ to “keep working until we achieve the kind of historic solution that all of us and the people of California want.’’

Speaker Nunez referred to the Governor's statement on the Assembly bill, disputing the Governor's characterization of it. "I need to ask the Administration to read the bill....Folks need to read the bill."

Sen. Don Perata, in his speech presenting AB 8 on the Senate Floor, criticized the lack of specificity in the Governor’s health plan, which has remained the same – a 10-page concept paper -- since January.