Why Schwarzenegger's Health Care Plan is a Trojan Horse

Current law says every automobile owner must purchase auto insurance, yet we don't call it universal auto insurance. Why? Because simply requiring people to have insurance doesn't mean they can or will. Mandating that everyone purchase health insurance doesn't make it universal, it just makes it required.

Besides, as Lt. Governor John Garamendi likes to say, we already have universal health care in this country, you just have to live long enough to take advantage of it. It's called Medicare. The majority of Californians support and want "Medicare for All."

Ignoring this "gold standard" solution contained in SB 840 allows the Governor and insurance lobbyist to make up their own so-called facts about the Gov's plan. Made up "facts" like:

The governor's plan would cover more people than any other proposal — and require hospitals and doctors to subsidize insurance for the poor. [Sacramento Bee, 5/11/07]

Under SB 840 every California resident would be provided with reliable, high quality, affordable, efficient, guaranteed health care coverage. That's every California resident. You can't cover more people than every.

Schwarzenegger's plan could also drive premiums to as high as $7,320 a year per household, the union said, citing costs from a statewide health coverage plan recently implemented in Massachusetts.

That is why SB 840 has to be ignored by policymakers, the press and insurance companies, and replaced by a Trojan Horse idea. That is why the insurance industry has to collude with Schwarzenegger to push the Trojan Horse plan. If word gets out about how perfect a solution a truly universal plan like SB 840 is, people would be demanding enactment. And if there's one thing the legislature doesn't want it's the people telling them what to do.

"Medicare for All" — which is essentially what SB 840 is — is the best solution to California's health care crisis.