California Flirts With Health Insurance.
California would become the only state to offer all its residents government-operated health care under a bill sent Thursday to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, although it's unlikely the governor will sign it.
The bill was among dozens lawmakers approved as they rushed to meet a midnight deadline before the end of the current legislative session.
The health care bill “will make quality health care available to each of us while preserving our freedom of choice as consumers and patients,” the bill's author, Democratic Sen. Sheila Kuehl, said after the Senate agreed to Assembly amendments on a 24-12 party-line vote.
Under the amended bill, California residents essentially would pay their health insurance premiums, copays and deductibles into a state-funded health insurance program. Money the state spends on health care also would go into the new system.
Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, modeled her bill on a private study that found billing each resident and business an annual premium based on income would be enough to pay for universal health care.
Kuehl said her bill guarantees that patients can choose their own doctors and would allow the state to cut prescription drug costs by negotiating bulk purchases. It also would help cut health care costs through increased efficiencies and reduced administrative costs, she said.
