The GOP is a minority in both houses of the Legislature, but most proposals involving state spending require a two-thirds vote, giving Republicans the power to stop them. However, it is possible that Schwarzenegger's plan could be molded to need a simple majority vote, like the last major piece of healthcare legislation to become law.
That measure, a 2003 mandate that most employers provide insurance for their workers, was repealed by voters the following year.
Schwarzenegger has taken incremental steps to expand existing programs aimed at children's health, including the addition of $80 million to the state budget last year.
Martha Escutia, a former Democratic state senator from Whittier who pressed for coverage of all children, including those of illegal immigrants, said Schwarzenegger told her in 2004 that he agreed with her.
"I said very bluntly that there was no way we could distinguish between children based on legal status," she recalled Wednesday. "And the governor agreed. He said, 'Children are children.' I remember him saying that very clearly."
Sixty-nine percent of Californian children without health insurance in 2005 were eligible for existing programs but were not enrolled, according to the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.
That was due to a variety of factors, including inadequate funds in some county programs to cover all those who qualified, and some of the bureaucratic requirements for entering state programs.
Many parents, for instance, are required to prove that their earnings are low enough to qualify their children.
There is disagreement about how many of the uninsured children are here illegally. A 2003 UCLA survey said that 33% were not citizens, but that does not mean that they were in the country illegally. Ross, of the California Endowment, said the number was below 15%.
Most of the other states that already guarantee coverage for all children do it through state-paid programs for those from poor families, and by allowing better-off families to cover their children by paying a portion of the costs for the same programs.
Typically, the more a family earns, the more it pays. Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Vermont all have such programs.
Lazarus, of the Children's Partnership, said that although California would not be the first to cover all children, it has fewer employers providing insurance and more illegal immigrants than other states, making coverage more challenging.
"For California to step up at this time when states and Congress are really focused on healthcare reform means that California could have a really significant leadership role across the nation," she said.
jordan.rau@latimes.com
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$400 million
projected cost of extending insurance to all California children
763,000
uninsured children would qualify for coverage
6.5 million
Californians have no health insurance
