Not long ago, Governor Schwarzenegger, alongside former Assembly Speaker Fabián Nuñez, proposed the expansion of health coverage for Californians. Today, ironically, he is cutting that access for hundreds of thousands of families and young people due to the budget deficit.
We believe adequate healthcare is a basic human right, even if it is not included in the constitution. At the same time, it is a big business with many individual interests that moves hundreds of billions of dollars annually. But for California, healthcare seems like just one more line item on a spending plan that can vanish from one moment to the next as if it were an unnecessary investment.
Now in the name of fiscal responsibility, Healthy Families medical insurance is slated for elimination for nearly 900,000 children of working families. It is increasingly difficult for the private sector to provide health benefits for its workers due to their cost, and now the State says it cannot afford them either.
California is the only state in the national unable to collect taxes for oil extraction, but is quite willing to deny children access to preventive healthcare because it has no money to pay for it.
What kind of a government do we have in California that allows this situation?
It is one that does not worry that half a million of its citizens —yes, citizens— have to go to Mexico for medical treatment, according to a recent study by UCLA. It is an impotent state whose priority is protecting the business class by not raising taxes, and leaving its working families unprotected. It is a state whose priorities are out of balance.
The governor’s goal, indicated in past ballot initiatives, is to have a predictable budget. For that we believe it is wise to have clear priorities. If health coverage was important yesterday, it should not be disposable today. This is a matter of economy and responsibility to Californians.
Not long ago, Governor Schwarzenegger, alongside former Assembly Speaker Fabián Nuñez, proposed the expansion of health coverage for Californians. Today, ironically, he is cutting that access for hundreds of thousands of families and young people due to the budget deficit.
We believe adequate healthcare is a basic human right, even if it is not included in the constitution. At the same time, it is a big business with many individual interests that moves hundreds of billions of dollars annually. But for California, healthcare seems like just one more line item on a spending plan that can vanish from one moment to the next as if it were an unnecessary investment.
Now in the name of fiscal responsibility, Healthy Families medical insurance is slated for elimination for nearly 900,000 children of working families. It is increasingly difficult for the private sector to provide health benefits for its workers due to their cost, and now the State says it cannot afford them either.
California is the only state in the national unable to collect taxes for oil extraction, but is quite willing to deny children access to preventive healthcare because it has no money to pay for it.
What kind of a government do we have in California that allows this situation?
It is one that does not worry that half a million of its citizens —yes, citizens— have to go to Mexico for medical treatment, according to a recent study by UCLA. It is an impotent state whose priority is protecting the business class by not raising taxes, and leaving its working families unprotected. It is a state whose priorities are out of balance.
