Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s universal health insurance proposal is a complicated, multi-faceted plan.  It is an attempt to address the problem of affordable health insurance and an attempt to spread the pain of any potential solution around to all parties (individual, medical system, government and employers). I know and respect many of the people who worked on the plan and recognize that tackling any change to our health care system is a tough challenge. 

That said, while there is MUCH to digest and educate ourselves on this proposal, one of the more troubling aspects of the governor’s plan is his intention to provide health insurance to illegal immigrants.  It’s not brain science that it is more costly to pay for emergency room visits than it is to pay for preventative care.  But the argument against extending health insurance to a group of people who entered our country illegally is more about the rule of law than it is about whether it costs more to have someone get their pneumonia treated in the ER or in their primary physician’s office.  Schwarzenegger’s political mentor, Governor Pete Wilson, was a big fan of preventive health care.  Schwarzenegger’s Health and Human Service Secretary, Kim Belshe, was a Wilson staffer in DC and in Sacramento and shares his dedication to this approach to health care policy.  But, in addition to trying to create preventive health care programs, Wilson recognized that the state was shouldering a huge financial burden of paying for health care for illegal immigrants and appealed to the federal government to reimburse the state for that cost, which is the direct result of a failed federal policy.

Absent from Schwarzenegger’s argument that providing illegal immigrants with health insurance is a financially prudent move was any reference to the state then holding the federal government’s feet to the fire to control the border and reduce our state taxpayers’ burden of paying for this population.  His very clear statement on this issue felt like a direct slap in the face of the legislative Republicans, many of whom have said that this issue is a non-starter for them. 

Finally, I’m sorry, but what’s the difference between providing a health insurance policy and a driver’s license?  Schwarzenegger has held firm on his belief that illegal immigrants should not have driver’s licenses (although we all know that they are driving on California streets and highways).  Now, he wants to give them health insurance (note:  we’re not talking health care–they already get care.  This proposal is to give this illegal population a legitimate right to seek on-going care in our state without any demand that they seek the care and then leave.)  It is one thing to treat an illegal immigrant in the emergency room; it’s another for the government to provide them with an insurance policy (there is no doubt that a large portion of illegal immigrants will fall into the expanded Healthy Families and expanded adult Medi-Cal service population that the governor’s plan creates).  If I were a legislative Democrat, I would push hard for a driver’s license bill this year.  How can the governor legitimately argue that there is any difference between government granting an illegal immigrant a health insurance policy or a driver’s license?

The governor and Belshe both said today that their plan was open to discussion and debate.  Perhaps in this era of post-partisanship, the governor will recognize the legitimate policy concerns of those, in and outside of the legislature, who do not want to keep creating new services and programs for illegal immigrants and revisit his proposal of providing health insurance to illegal immigrants.  Time will tell.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 8th, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.