Schwarzenegger Promotes Health Plan in State Address

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger laid out his plan to address the state’s $14 billion budget deficit Tuesday and stressed the need to move forward with the health care plan approved by the Democrat controlled Assembly last month. Schwarzenegger, a Republican, said the Health Care Security and Cost Reduction Act will take pressure off the budget to finance the state’s Medicaid program rate hikes that drive state spending.

“The Act is fully funded, budget neutral and includes mechanisms to ensure strong oversight, evaluation and flexibility to prevent auto-pilot spending,” Schwarzenegger said of the plan, which would change the way healthcare is packaged in the nation’s largest state.

Democrat House Speaker Fabian Nunez also urged moving forward with the state’s health reform initiative, which is being watch by legislators, hospitals and ARM professionals nationwide. Experts say universal healthcare in California would likely speed efforts by other states, and possibly the country, to require all Americans to have coverage.

“Seizing this historic opportunity can provide one of the bright spots on a tough road ahead,” he said in the Democrat response to the Governor’s State of the State address.

But Senate President pro Tem Don Perata was mum on the subject in his response to the State of the State address. And he hasn’t said when he will bring the plan to the Senate floor for a vote.

The Senate must approve the $14 billion to $18 billion plan before the governor can sign it and before it can go to voters in November, who will be asked to approve how the plan is funded. Perata has said it would be “imprudent and impolitic” to support an expansion of health care coverage without knowing how the state will pay for the state’s other health programs. Perata, however, did help draft the plan and supported it as it moved to a vote in the Assembly.

Last month, he asked the legislative analyst to examine the long-term fiscal impact of the plan on the state’s general fund.