WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- The answer to the nation's healthcare crisis is the "post-partisan politics" of compromise, Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said at the National Press Club Monday.
"Why is being principled reserved for extremists?" he asked. "We can be centrists and be principled."
After battling with the Democratic-controlled state Legislature and seeing many of his proposals defeated in a general election, the man known as the governator said he experienced a change of heart, which in turn led to a change of strategy in working with opponents to find workable solutions.
In Washington to meet with President Bush and attend a national governor's meeting, he continued to tout his healthcare proposal -- modeled after reforms recently enacted in Massachusetts -- to cover the state's nearly 7 million uninsured residents. The plan, which he said was a reasonable compromise, would require all individuals to have insurance, expand Medicaid to cover the poorest residents and establish risk pools for middle-class uninsured. Employers would be offered the choice of insuring their workers or paying into a state healthcare fund.
"The important thing for us in California is to insure everybody," Schwarzenegger said.
The primary responsibility for healthcare should lie with individuals and private markets, he said, but the government should step in where oversight is needed.
Insurance companies would be required to offer coverage to everyone, he said, "because right now they pick and choose a lot of times."
In exchange, the state would group individuals into larger groups to spread out insurance risk, and impose a tax penalty on individuals who are not insured.
Though the proposal will cost the state money, in the long run it will bring down costs and eliminate a "hidden tax" on businesses and insured people who pay more for healthcare to make up for the costs of emergency care for the uninsured, he said.
"People who don't take responsibility for themselves end up costing other people a lot of money."
The governor also defended a more controversial tenet of his proposal: insurance for undocumented immigrants.
"The fact is, we have no choice about paying the medical bills of people illegally in California," he said. "The real question is do we treat them in the emergency room ... or do we treat them more efficiently and more effectively."
The proposal is part of a larger overall plan to offer citizenship to some illegal immigrants and establish a guest worker program, a plan he portrayed as a moderate choice between conservatives who want to evict illegal immigrants and liberals who want to offer them all amnesty.
While states can do a lot to extend coverage, they cannot solve the problem alone, Schwarzenegger said, and he told President Bush that when they met Monday morning, adding that Bush's recent proposal to help the uninsured afford healthcare coverage through a tax deduction is a step in the right direction.
But not everyone in Schwarzenegger's home state feels included in the governor's grand centrist coalition.
"This faux idea that he's bipartisan is just not true," Andrew McGuire, executive director of the OneCareNow Campaign, told United Press International.
McGuire, like many other California residents, supports a bill passed by the Legislature last year that would have eliminated private health insurance in favor of a statewide, single-payer system. The governor vetoed the bill, declaring that he would not consider any "socialized medicine" proposal.
"When (Schwarzenegger) talks about the kinds of ideas he'll entertain, he's eliminated what we believe is the only idea that will solve the (healthcare) problem," McGuire said.
"I do not believe the governor is bipartisan when it comes to healthcare. He picks and chooses which people he's willing to work with."
While Schwarzenegger's proposal to cover undocumented immigrants is the right idea, his emphasis on individual responsibility is out of touch with the reality that low-income Californians face, McGuire said.
The OneCareNow campaign, which is organizing a series of grassroots events across the state, is in sharp contrast with Schwarzenegger's supporters in the insurance industry, he added.
"The governor has no grassroots campaign. It's hard to generate a grassroots campaign among insurance executives."
