Gov., Nunez forge a health plan - The Legislature will now take up the complicated accord. A funding measure may go on November ballot.
SACRAMENTO -- — After nearly a year of often tortuous negotiations, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez have settled on a plan to extend health insurance to 3.6 million Californians who lack it through a new tax on all employers and tobacco sales, officials said Friday.
The leaders have agreed to ask voters in November to require employers to spend between 1% and 6.5% of their payroll costs on healthcare. The measure would also levy a tax on tobacco sales of at least $1.50 a pack, although it could be as high as $2 a pack, the aides said.
"It's an incredible plan," Nunez (D-Los Angeles) said in an interview. "I couldn't tell you there is one single outstanding issue that is a make-or-break issue."
Daniel Zingale, a senior advisor to Schwarzenegger, said the leaders "have agreed on the framework of the healthcare reform that will go before voters."
Nunez's office on Friday filed a companion bill that contains the details of how the plan would work and scheduled an afternoon vote in the Assembly on Monday, presuming a few details will be resolved over the weekend.
That bill does not contain the taxes or other measures that would provide the $14 billion a year needed to finance the ambitious overhaul and would not take effect unless the ballot measure passes. That puts Democratic lawmakers in the highly unusual position of voting on the plan without being able to assess whether the intricate financing scheme will be adequate. Republicans have already vowed to vote against the measure.
The moves came as Schwarzenegger promised to call an emergency session of the Legislature for early January to make cuts to the state's budget. The governor's office estimates the projected gap may reach as high as $14 billion by July 2009, which is threatening to sap political momentum from the healthcare plan.
On Thursday, Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland) said that while he supported most of the Nunez-Schwarzenegger plan, he intends to delay a Senate vote on the measure until the governor outlines how his proposed budget cuts will affect existing healthcare programs for the poor and disabled
The Nunez-Schwarzenegger plan would require almost all Californians to obtain private medical insurance. Those earning below 2 1/2 times the poverty level -- or $51,625 for a family of four -- would receive state subsidies to pay for most of their premiums.
