Talk to the hand…
The DNC and the Obama White House rolled out their latest tactic last week, securing support on health reform from a variety of Republicans, most of them retired and none of whom can actually vote on the bill in Congress. Within a matter of days, Bill Frist had backed off his support, and Bob Dole forced the cancellation of a DNC ad touting the Republican endorsements. So it wasn't the most successful strategy.
But the White House continues to use the GOP support in talking points, and the President talked of an "emerging consensus" on health reform in his weekend address.
One of those supporters cited is Arnold Schwarzenegger, who over the weekend vetoed multiple bills that would improve and expand access to health insurance in California, including key elements of the national health reform bills:
• He vetoed a raft of bills that would have mandated all insurance companies in California to cover a variety of outcomes, including maternity care (AB 98), cervical cancer screening and HPV vaccine (SB 158), breast feeding counseling (AB 513), mammograms (AB 56), and mental health (AB 244).
• AB 730 would have imposed fines on insurers who rescinded policies from their customers after they tried to use their coverage.
• AB 196 would have required public notice to a community for any hospital closure, or any reduction/elimination of emergency medical services.
Schwarzenegger did manage to sign AB 119, which would ban tiered pricing of health insurance by gender. But he sided with insurance companies on a host of coverage issues, and rejected fines for rescission. The fate of other bills, like a fee on hospitals to access $2 billion in federal funds, and other anti-rescission legislation, have not yet been released; last night at midnight was the deadline for the Governor to sign legislation.
(The reason that 700-odd bills were signed or vetoed in one day is because Arnold took all the bills hostage and threatened to veto everything if he didn't get what he wanted on a fix to the state water system, but that's a long and complicated story. Ultimately he dropped the threat and signed or vetoed each bill "on the merits," so we can be clear that this is what he really believes with regard to health reform.)
Those of us in California understand that Arnold inevitably says one thing and does another, but in the national media he's seen as some kind of post-partisan good guy and not a tool of corporate interests. Here we have a so-called "reform supporter" killing a bill to require insurance companies to offer maternity coverage, in the exact same manner that Jon Kyl sought not to mandate maternity benefits in the Senate Finance Committee markup when he said "I don't need maternity care," prompting Debbie Stabenow to retort, "I think your mom probably did." Schwarzenegger sided with Kyl.
These are just this year's vetoes. In the past, Arnold has vetoed universal health care twice, and vetoed a bill outright banning rescission. And this is the third year in a row he has vetoed the aforementioned bill mandating that insurance companies cover maternity care.
A piece of paper saying "I support health care reform" aside, why exactly would the DNC or the White House tout the endorsement of Arnold Schwarzenegger, someone who just made it harder for women to get obstetric care or screen for cervical cancer or breast cancer, sided with insurance companies over people on multiple occasions, and declined to fine them if they drop a patient's coverage after they try to use it?
I have a call in to the DNC asking them just that. Will update when I get more info.
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