Schwarzenegger Health Care Plan: Children First

Reporters have been sniffing out Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's healthcare plan, set to be unveiled Monday. It looks like the bootstraps governor wants the collective village to chip in for health insurance, at least for children. A few tidbits:

• Jordan Rau at the Times: Several independent sources said Schwarzenegger intends "to guarantee medical coverage for children of families earning up to 300% of the poverty level, or $60,000 a year for a family of four. Those families have 90% of the children without insurance. But the cutoff is not yet set in stone." And it would include "illegal" children. In addition, the governor wants to include new requirements for businesses to cover employees, sources said.



• Clea Benson over at the Bee also says the governor wants to allow families making less than 300% of the poverty level to enroll in Healthy Families, the government-subsidized insurance program. And Schwarzenegger is "expected to propose covering more uninsured adults by requiring individuals to have insurance and employers to help pay for that -- a model his administration refers to as 'shared responsibility.' "



• Lynda Gledhill at the Chronicle says "insiders believe the governor will endorse a requirement that employers provide health insurance despite the strong opposition it is likely to receive. ... Administration sources have said that the governor's plan will be comprehensive and aimed at universal coverage but will not be a 'take it or leave it' program."

Taking care of children is the easy part. They are relatively cheaper to insure and it's a no-brainer for a political message. (It's the fearless younger adults -- the ones who make less money and think they are invincible - who are harder to capture into the system. I'm curious about how Schwarzenegger plans to get them covered -- perhaps with a low-cost, bare-bones plan.) And what about capping runaway costs at hospitals -- mandated by the government -- and raising MediCal rates for doctors? Lots more to come.

Looking at the stories today about children, blogger Anthony Wright over at Health Access says it's about time.