Steve Wiegand: Different players, same tune

Now, another example of how nothing much changes, and when it does, it doesn't change much:

After his health insurance reform proposal went down the tubes in late January, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger tried to reduce the sting by putting it in historical perspective.

"If it were easy, California would have gotten universal coverage 60 years ago," the governor said. "That's when Gov. Earl Warren's reform plan fell short by a single vote."

Schwarzenegger's math was off a bit, but it's undeniable that many of the aspects of Warren's first attempt at giving Californians a comprehensive health insurance plan were eerily similar to Schwarzenegger's.

On Jan. 8, 1945, Warren presented his proposal, which was based on a 3 percent payroll tax, half of which would be paid by employers, the other half by employees. Families of workers would be covered as well. The payroll levy would apply only to the first $4,000 of earnings.

Like Schwarzenegger, Warren was a popular Republican governor who was well to the left of much of his party. Warren easily won the job in 1942, would win both the GOP and Democratic gubernatorial nominations in 1946, and then an unprecedented third term in 1950.

But his health plan had foes. The state Chamber of Commerce opposed it on the premise that higher payroll taxes would put California's businesses at a competitive disadvantage with other states.

The California Medical Association didn't like the idea either, in part because Warren's plan could wreak havoc with its 7-year-old insurance company, called California Physicians' Service (later Blue Shield).

So they hired Clem Whitaker, a San Francisco political consultant who – with his wife, Leone Baxter – had pioneered his craft by injecting it with advertising industry methods.

Like Schwarzenegger, Warren tried to drum up public support for his plan through two statewide radio addresses. The CMA countered with its own media blitz, attacking what it called "socialized medicine."

The CMA also sponsored its own bill, which basically offered financial incentives for signing up with private insurance companies. Another plan, backed by organized labor, was also put forward.

On March 27, the Assembly's health committee took up Warren's proposal in a hearing that lasted more than 10 hours. The administration's star witness and public health policy expert was a University of Michigan professor named Dr. Nathan Sinai.

"California, by adopting the bill, can put on a demonstration for the rest of the United States," Sinai said.

Unfortunately, however, Dr. Sinai was not an M.D., but a veterinarian. That led to much derisive merriment at the measure's expense.

A week later, committee Chairman Fred Kraft, a Republican pharmacist from San Diego, announced all the health plans would be "held for study" in the committee. Warren's forces tried on the Assembly floor to withdraw his plan from the committee but fell three votes short.

"It is rather a sad commentary (the bill) cannot be brought out into the open and thoroughly debated on the floor of the Legislature," Warren said after the vote. "But such is the power of the lobbies against it."

Warren took three more swings at a health care plan, although none of them was as comprehensive. In 1953, President Eisenhower appointed him U.S. chief justice. Whitaker went on to make a fortune running the American Medical Association's successful campaign to kill President Truman's efforts to establish a national health insurance program.

And Schwarzenegger's health care plan became the 39th failed legislative effort in California since 1950 at expanding health care coverage.

About the writer:

• Call The Bee's Steve Wiegand, (916) 321-1076. Back columns, www.sacbee.com/wiegand.