States attempt expansion of rationed health care

NY Times:

A year that began with great ambition for major expansions of health insurance here (Sacramento) and in other state capitals is ending with considerable uncertainty, as a second wave of change runs headlong into a darkening economy and political divisions over how to apportion the cost.

Though the governors of three big states — California, Illinois and Pennsylvania — proposed sweeping plans to restructure health care this year, none will finish 2007 with bills passed and signed. In each state, the initiatives confronted entrenched opposition from insurance and other business lobbies that made it far more difficult to build a consensus for change than in the smaller New England states that acted in recent years.

Yet it also was a year of intriguing achievement, here above all, where the Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the Democratic Assembly speaker, Fabian Núñez, drew up a bipartisan blueprint for bringing near-universal coverage to the country’s most populous state.

Mr. Schwarzenegger and Mr. Núñez have yet to close the deal by gaining the support of the State Senate. But they demonstrated in their yearlong negotiations that a consensus on basic principles could be reached, perhaps setting a template for other states and for Washington.

“It’s significant that what they’ve been talking about in California is similar to what many of the leading Democratic presidential candidates are talking about as well,” said Larry Levitt, vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, which researches health care issues. “There seems to be some convergence at least on the part of those supporting universal health care on how to get there.”

In addition to being the most populous state, California has among the country’s highest proportions of uninsured residents, about 20 percent. Indeed, there are more uninsured in California than there are total residents of Massachusetts, Maine or Vermont, the states that have set the pace for overhauling health care. Success here, therefore, would send a signal that such plans could be enacted in states with the heaviest burdens.

The Schwarzenegger-Núñez plan, which passed the Democratic-controlled Assembly last week, expands on the universal coverage law that Massachusetts passed in 2006. That state now requires insurance companies to offer coverage regardless of an applicant’s health status and mandates that most residents have insurance by Dec. 31, or face a tax penalty of $219.

State officials project that more than 300,000 previously uninsured people will sign up in time, a third of them in a surge over the last month. That has put Massachusetts more than halfway to its goal of insuring everyone.

The downside, and one noted by states with widening budget gaps, is that the program is expected to exceed its first-year budget by at least $150 million. And state officials are struggling to prevent double-digit premium increases next year.

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Downside? It is what happens everywhere it is tried. As the budget revenues are exceeded by expenditures, rationing of health care is sure to follow. It is just a terrible idea. California is a good example of what is wrong with the idea. Nationwide, one third of the uninsured are illegal aliens. In California, the number is even higher. The "free" health care will only give illegals more incentive to mooch off of California than go home.

Npte also the NY Times uses of the phrase "darkening economy" which must reflect the papers stock price more than the real economy which continues to be robust despite mortgage problems caused by fraudulent and imprudent borrowing. However, if we adopt hair brained health care schemes put forward by liberals we will all be poorer and have worse health care.