Recap and Analysis of Legislative Floor Debates on California Health Care

California Progress Report
September 11, 2007

Recap and Analysis of Yesterday's Legislative Floor Debates on
California Health Care
By Hanh Kim Quach, Health Care Policy Coordinator, Health Access
California

The California Senate and Assembly passed historic health care reform
legislation Monday... AB 8 (Nunez/Perata).

Yet even before the debate on AB 8 (Nunez/Perata) was finished in the
Assembly, 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."

Sen. Sam Aanestad and other Republican legislators attempted to
disparage AB 8 by comparing it with the Massachusetts plan, pointing
out that Governor Romney in "running from it." While AB 8 certainly
shares certain features with the Massachusetts plan, one missing
provision is glaringly obvious: the absence of any mandate to buy
coverage in the individual market. Even for group coverage, AB 8 does
not require anyone to have coverage if they can't afford it.
Affordability is explicitly defined in the bill – unlike in
Massachusetts. No worker would have to take up coverage if their
health care costs – premiums and out-of-pocket costs --would exceed 5
percent of a person’s wages.

Many lawmakers, including Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, said AB 8
was California's opportunity to provide a model for the federal
government to implement health care reform. "We have a broken health
care system in California and we must do something to fix it now...
This health care package will deliver what the federal government has
failed to do: to provide all Americans with affordable health care
coverage," Nunez said.

As part of a special session, (Sen. Don Perata said), "we would
continue where we left off..."

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