Back in the Legislature
June 2008
When Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's California Health Insurance plan was rejected earlier this year by the Senate, he vowed not to give up. And now, with more than a dozen health care and medical insurance bills moving through California's legislature, he's showing state citizens that he meant what he said.
These separate bills are proving to be more popular with California Republicans, though they contain many elements from Schwarzenegger's medical insurance plan that was defeated. The difference now is that the costs of approving the bills would not be foisted on the state - which has already struggled with tremendous debt.
Instead, the costs would belong to the health care industry, a move that critics argue will only make California health insurance more expensive.
Specifics of the bills include a measure that require insurance agencies to spend a minimum of 85% of their premiums on patient care, cover more procedures such as those connected to maternity and cleft palate surgeries, and force insurance agencies to seek approval from state regulators before they could cancel the medical insurance coverage of any member who needs extensive medical care.
These measures come at a crucial time, when recent news reveals that some women who have caesarean sections to deliver their children are being denied insurance later on in order to cut costs, and of course, the big case in which one woman who lost her California health insurance when she was diagnosed with breast cancer won an unprecedented $9 million in damages in a lawsuit.
The California Association of Health Plans complain that such bills will only raise costs, but Schwarzenegger's camp argues that such measures would make current coverage more secure, control costs, and prevent anti-consumer practices on the part of unscrupulous insurance agencies.
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