California's lower house has passed the first phase of a plan to
extend medical insurance to almost all residents, it was reported
on Tuesday.
Under the plan, 14.4 billion dollars will be extended to nearly
all residents for medical insurance, the Los Angeles Times
said.
The move late Monday gave Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his
Democratic allies their first victory in a risky yearlong campaign
to overhaul California's healthcare system, the paper said.
The measure, negotiated by Schwarzenegger and Assembly Speaker
Fabian Nuez, would require almost everyone in California to have
insurance starting in 2010, according to the paper. It would
provide subsidies and tax credits for those who would have trouble
paying their share of the premiums.
The plan would bring medical coverage to 3.6 million
Californians, including 800,000 children, who currently do not have
it. But the plan cannot go into effect unless it passes the state
Senate and voters approve a companion initiative that
Schwarzenegger and Nuez are planning to place on the November
ballot to finance it.
The measure, which passed the Assembly on a party-line 45-31
vote, was heralded as an important step not only for California but
for a national Democratic effort to enact a similar plan for the
entire country.
"California has taken a giant step forward today on something
that many people thought could not be done," Schwarzenegger said.
"With the Assembly's courageous vote . . . we are closer than ever
to fixing our broken healthcare system."
But the measure faces a more skeptical reception in the Senate,
where Democratic leaders are asking whether it makes sense to adopt
such a giant change at a time when California has a projected 14
billion-dollar budget gap.
(Xinhua News Agency December 19, 2007)