http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/103790.html


Health care plan facing opposition
By Aurelio Rojas - Bee Capitol Bureau

Published 12:00 am PST Saturday, January 6, 2007
Story appeared in MAIN NEWS section, Page A1

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Even before Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger formally unveils his health care plan Monday, fellow Republicans in the Legislature are vowing to block any plan that provides coverage for illegal immigrants.

Advocates who have been briefed say Schwarzenegger will propose that all children have insurance as part of his plan to increase access for the 6.5 million Californians without insurance. Richard Brown, director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, which compiles the most authoritative count on the uninsured, estimates 13 percent of the 1.1 million children without insurance are illegal immigrants.

So a budget stalemate could be looming before the governor announces his 2007-08 spending plan Wednesday.

"The Senate Republican caucus will not be supporting any plan that gives benefits to illegals, because that serves as an incentive for them to come here in the first place and stay here," said Senate GOP leader Dick Ackerman, R-Irvine.

Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines, R-Clovis, also predicted members of his caucus will refuse to support such a plan.

"Our members will hold together," he said. "Californians, very clearly, do not want to reward illegal behavior."

H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the state Department of Finance, said any "additional resources for health care" have to go through the legislative process.

Democrats hold commanding majorities in both houses of the Legislature, but the state budget requires a two-thirds vote.

That means supporters of expanding health care for children will need to pick up six Republican votes in the Assembly -- a high threshold -- and two in the Senate.

In his second inaugural speech Friday, Schwarzenegger appealed for bipartisanship, declaring, "No one ideology can solve prison reform or immigration reform or any of the other challenges facing us.

"It will take creative thinking," he said. "It will take negotiations. It will take letting go of the past."

But if the past is, indeed, prologue, Republicans could hold up the budget as they did last year until Schwarzenegger and Democratic lawmakers gave up on a proposal to provide $23 million for county programs that insure children, including illegal immigrants.

Providing universal health coverage for children in California who do not have insurance could cost the state $250 million to $400 million a year, according to various estimates.

"I don't think any of my colleagues are going to support an expansion that creates a further magnet for illegal immigration," said Assemblyman John Benoit, R-Palm Desert.

Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Temecula, said such a proposal would not make economic sense, "because we're staring at a budget deficit that's several billion dollars."

According to the nonpartisan legislative analyst, California is facing a $5.5 billion deficit in the fiscal year that begins July 1.

Schwarzenegger has made health care his top priority. He says he wants all uninsured Californians -- children and adults -- to have insurance, with individuals, government, employers, medical providers and insurers sharing the costs. That would cost an estimated $12 billion a year -- and the governor has been steadfast in his opposition to raising taxes.

Advocates who have been briefed on the governor's plan to cover all children say he is not likely to suggest a way to pay for it when he releases it.

Ruth Liu, Schwarzenegger's associate secretary for health policy, said the administration is still "developing all components" of the plan.

"Certainly, we are well aware there was a problem with this issue in the previous session," Liu said. "But on Monday, we are going to go ahead and tell you about all the different elements of the plan."

Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, and Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, have introduced their own plans. Both would require employers to either provide insurance or pay into a state pool to purchase insurance for workers. The workers would then be required to buy that insurance.

Perata's proposal would exclude illegal immigrants, but Nuñez's plan would provide coverage for their children.

Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access, which advocates for health consumers, said a plan that covers all children "makes a lot of sense."

"I think it's hard politically to hold up such a plan, especially if we require all workers to have coverage," he said. "This would actually be a small part of the overall puzzle.'

Brown estimates that, overall, illegal immigrants account for perhaps 15 percent of Californians without insurance.

But the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which has denounced Schwarzenegger's efforts, argues such statistics are misleading.

"In many cases, the children of illegal immigrants are born here and are technically citizens," said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the group. "But it's still a consequence of illegal immigration."

Allan Hoffenblum, a former GOP political consultant, predicted Schwarzenegger will have difficulty swaying Republican lawmakers.

"Republican legislators do not need Latino votes to get elected because they're in gerrymandered safe districts," he said.

About the writer:

* The Bee's Aurelio Rojas can be reached at (916) 326-5545 or arojas@sacbee.com.