Editorial: Perata holds keys to state health care reform

The time has come for the California Senate to pass the health care reform plan negotiated by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez and Senate leader Don Perata.

This $14 billion plan is not without risks, but it represents the state's best chance – and possibly its last chance – to expand health care coverage to the 6.8 million Californians who lack insurance.

If adopted, the plan could go a long way toward keeping emergency rooms open. More than 70 have closed in California since 1990 because hospitals can't afford to treat the uninsured.

It would also do much to improve preventative care – assuring early treatment to kids and adults who are developing diabetes, heart ailments and other costly, potentially deadly diseases.

Assembly Bill X1 1, having passed the lower chamber, now faces an uncertain fate in the Senate.

Activists who support a "single-payer" government-run health care system are trying to kill the Assembly plan, mislabeling it as a giveaway to insurance giants. They make this claim even though the bill would prevent insurance companies from denying coverage to people with serious health conditions – a huge victory for consumers.

To date, the California Nurses Association and the Foundation for Consumer and Taxpayer Rights have been the most relentless critics. They are snuggled up with some odd bedfellows. Lurking in the shadows is the tobacco industry, which has been lobbying to kill a key element of the plan – a proposed tobacco tax that would help expand coverage. It's a sad day in Sacramento when nurses and self-styled consumer advocates are joining with cigarette merchants and some insurers to kill a delicately crafted deal on health care reform.

In recent days, many of these groups have seized on a legislative analyst's report that points out some long-term risks with the Assembly-passed proposal. As the report notes, the plan provides adequate financing to cover the uninsured if monthly premiums were kept to $250 or lower per person. But if medical inflation pushes the monthly premiums to $300 or more, the plan would be left with a $1.5 billion shortfall in five years – forcing the state to either pull the plug or shore it up with additional taxes or fees.

These concerns are legitimate, but they are not arguments for maintaining the status quo. If the legislative analyst were to analyze the risks to the state's economy and budget by doing nothing, the results would be sobering. Imagine more hospitals closing, more employers dropping coverage for employees, more kids condemned to a lifetime of preventable diseases and less chance of controlling runaway medical inflation.

Given the alternatives, we'll take our chances with AB X1 1. So should Perata, the Senate president pro tem, who could determine the fate of this legislation.

It doesn't happen often that a Republican governor comes together with Democrats to craft a health care overhaul that is supported by hospitals, business coalitions, health care advocates and right-minded unions and consumer groups. This is an opportunity that the Senate, and the state, can't afford to pass up. Pass AB X1 1. Don't blow this chance.