The Governator announced his health care vision yesterday. You can find a good summary of it here. The plan would mandate that all Californians have health insurance, and the state would mandate what would and wouldn’t be covered. The plan would be funded by a 4% payroll tax, a 4% tax on hospital revenues, and a 2% tax on physician’s income.
Excuse me, they’re user fees, not taxes. Of course, that’s to get around the California constitution, which mandates that new taxes pass by a 2/3 vote of the legislature. So if when this passes the legislature (and it will pass) by a simple majority, someone will file a lawsuit, and this will be in court for a couple of years.
“The Governator has been hinting that he’d like to see some sort of mandated health coverage for Californians. I’d like to see it, too, but in a way that is not government run, government mandated, and government funded. I think that Californians—the same Californians that voted down a mandatory health care initiative—need to let their Assemblymen and State Senators (and the Governator) know how they feel.”
What did the Governator propose? A government mandated, government funded system. It’s not run by the government; however, it might as well be. The government will decide what will and won’t be covered.
This proposal is a recipe for economic disaster in California. The payroll tax falls on employers who have ten or more employees. That’s a lot of small businesses. If I were the Nevada Development Authority, I’d be getting my advertisements ready.
A second problem is what will happen with this proposal after it emerges from the legislature. California’s legislature leans to the left…well, that’s an understatement. It’s very liberal. I expect this legislation to be added to like a Christmas tree, with all sorts of pet mandates being added to it.
Other major problems with this proposal include mandated coverage for illegal aliens, a new state bureaucracy to enforce the legislation (part of the Christmas tree), and, as Ed Morrissey notes, the strong likelihood that prospective doctors will either choose other professions or other states to practice in.
There is at least one good point about this proposal: I won’t have to worry about health insurance any more….