January 23, 2008

Senate vote on health plan postponed until Monday

The Senate Health Committee will postpone a vote on a measure to overhaul health care in California, Sen. Sheila Kuehl announced this afternoon, as the marathon hearing heads into its sixth hour.

Kuehl, the Santa Monica Democrat who chairs the health committee, said that she would delay a vote on the measure until Monday, at the request of Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata.

The fate of the measure, AB X1 1, which was negotiated by Assembly Democrats and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, has hung in the balance after Sen. Leland Yee, a San Francisco Democrat, announced Tuesday he would oppose the measure.

Yee's opposition, combined with that of Kuehl, leaves the bill at least one vote shy of passage in the 11-member committee. With six votes needed, only five Democrats have not announced their opposition. None of the four GOP members have openly supported the measure.

In his comments before the committee, Perata took a not-so-veiled shot at Yee's opposition, which was announced before the release of a legislative analyst's report studying the finances of the plan.

"I am a little dismayed that some committee members have seen fit, or maybe one committee member, is seeing fit to pre-judge the LAO’s report without reading it," Perata said. "Be that as it may, I guess we all approach our work in a different manner.

In an interview with the San Jose Mercury News, Perata said Wednesday he would not stack the health committee to get the bill out, as has been rumored around the building.

"No. I wouldn't do that," he said.

Perata himself sounded a pessimistic tone about the fate of the measure, which would provide health insurance for 70 percent of uninsured Californians.

"When people are losing their homes, losing their jobs, losing their net worth, we need not appear insensitive and out of touch with those realities," Perata told the Merc's Mike Zapler. "You don't instill public confidence by doing things that people don't understand and they don't think is a high priority. And I don't think anybody right now believes anything (is more important) right now but the economy, economy, the economy."

Posted by Shane Goldmacher on January 23, 2008 02:25 PM