When the Legislature reconvenes in 2008, Sen. Sheila Kuehl will have a role to play in the unfolding health care debate.
Kuehl, a liberal Santa Monica Democrat, chairs the Senate Health Committee, the first stop for AB 1x in the Senate.
She's no fan of the bill. Instead, Kuehl has been a driving force behind the push for single-payer health care in the state. But her legislation to do that was vetoed in 2006 and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has threatened to veto any future iterations of the idea.
This week, in an op-ed on the California Progress Report, Kuehl asks and answers a series of questions about the health legislation.
In her essay, Kuehl sets Jan. 16 as the expected first hearing for AB 1x in the Senate. But even that is contingent on "if the language of the bill is in its final form according to its author, the Speaker, the requested analysis of the impact of the State Budget by the Legislative Analyst's Office is complete, and the Committee also has the language of the proposed initiative that will, supposedly, fund the bill."
Here's her AB 1x Q&A, with only the start of her answers included (the full answers are very long):
Giant Leap for Health Coverage? Or for premiums...
The press has described the bill in breathless prose as a "giant leap" for health coverage. Unfortunately, this is not quite the case, depending on who you are and how and where you work. Each of the sections below will explain some of the provisions of the bill actually harmful to regular, working-class and middle-class families. And it provides less help than advertised for poor families, as well...
Coverage for everyone?
The press characterizes the bill as providing or extending coverage to all but a few Californians. This is a mischaracterization, nothing is provided. Instead, all Californians would be required to buy insurance with no caps on premiums, no regulation of the cost of insurance or medical expense, no maximum deductibles, and no floor on how little coverage you can buy and satisfy the legal requirement...
Is there at least minimum coverage required in the bill?
No...
How is the bill to be financed?
There is no funding in the bill...
But how do poor people fare...today's uninsured?
Better, but still a hardship...
Unions seem to like the bill, don't they?
Well, some of them...
@Nyx.CommentBody@