Disaster With a Silver Lining
It's a tough year for health care reformers in California, especially since a year ago it still seemed like a plan for universal health care was possible. At a meeting this week of statewide health care advocates (in Tahoe--tough duty, eh?), the discussion is focused on stopping wholesale cuts in health care for children, low-income families and the disabled--all of which Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has seriously proposed. Yet even in this tough atmosphere, there are silver linings--the national focus on health reform isn't fading, even in the face of economic crisis. And Schwarzenegger is facing reality on tax increases.
Schwarzenegger has seriously proposed major tax increases, arguing correctly that covering $20-plus-billion in budget shortfall with cuts alone would mean trashing every state responsibility. It may have been Schwarzenegger's deliberate obtuseness that got us into the budget mess, but for the first time in his nearly 6 years in office, it is possible to say the word "tax" without the word "cut" immediately following.
The new respectability of even the concept of revenue means there's a decent chance that children of the working class will keep their state-subsidized health care, and the that poorest of the poor won't be thrown off of Medicaid.
Every advocate also has one eye on Washington, where health care improvements are finally seen as a pillar of economic stability--not just some kind of socialist plot. The first plan out of the gate, from Sen. Max Baucus, isn't perfect because of its demand that people buy private, unregulated health insurance (see previous post), but it's breathtaking that it would even be put to paper in the middle of a financial crisis.
So no one's cheering the situation. Yet no one is overlooking the chances to hold ground in California and gain ground in D.C.