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The Health Care Mess

We often hear in progressive circles that health care is a right, not a privilege. In Gov. Schwarzenegger's California, health care is now a mandate. Similar to car insurance, it's "Get health care coverage -- or else." Individuals must find a way to get covered, and for the most part it will have to be tied to their employment. There is some good discussion on this over at Calitics. Here are the big problems I have pulled out so far:

• It won't do anything to further regulate the out-of-control insurance companies, and in fact the insurance companies are the main beneficiaries of this plan.
• The state subsidies are too low to make health care truly affordable for those who aren't covered by employers.
• The tax put on businesses that don't cover their employees is too low; for most businesses it will be cheaper to pay the tax than to cover their employees.

There are so many other details, but the bottom line is this is the wrong approach to covering the 6 million Californians who are now uninsured, and the millions more who are struggling in the current system with too-high premiums and not enough control over their care. Californians in particular are too mobile in their jobs for health care to be tied to employment. Again, if we believe as a state that every Californian should have high-quality care, that is what we should do.

Though being heralded as "unique," it's nearly identical to the plan passed in Massachusetts by then-Republican Gov. Mitt Romney. New Governor Deval Patrick is now tasked with sorting through the law and its consequences. Perhaps we can look to Patrick, a progressive, to lead the way so that we in California do not make the same mistakes.

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