http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/ehagedorn/25826 Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger hasn't given up on passing a health plan that covers all Californians. According to the Associated Press, his staff is working to fix the previous plan.&nbsp; &quot;Now we'll try again,&quot; Schwarzenegger said. &quot;We will continue on, keeping the stakeholders together, fine-tuning it and seeing if we can improve on it since we have the time now, then be back again. We feel very confident.&quot; He said he is not willing to break apart the plan, as some have suggested, to tackle only children's health care or address problems with Medi-Cal, the state insurance plan for the poor. Schwarzenegger spent months negotiating a $14.7 billion health care package with Democratic leaders last year, only to watch it fail in a state Senate committee in late January after an analysis raised concerns about its financing. Your thoughts? What should he &quot;fix&quot; in the old plan and what should he keep? To refresh your memory about what his original plan included read the post, &quot;Governor's plan carries penalties for people who opt out of health coverage.&quot; Here are some highlights from the old plan: All Californians will be required to have health insurance. Insurers must guarantee coverage. Access to public programs, like Medi-Cal and Healthy Families, will be expanded. Medi-Cal reimbursement rates will be increased to encourage more participation from providers, hospitals and health plans. Since these rates will be increased, hospitals will have to pay 4 percent of their revenues and doctors will have to pay 2 percent to the state. People can make pre-tax contributions into Health Saving Accounts. Businesses with 10 or more employees will have to offer coverage or pay 4 percent of their payroll into a state pot. To combat diabetes, Medi-Cal, the California Diabetes Program and community organizations will develop a statewide initiative to institute interventions, screening, prevention and self-management. To combat medical errors, all providers must use electronic prescribing by 2010, among other things. The state will remove statutory and regulatory barriers to help expand low-cost health care models, like retail-based medical clinics. If you opt out of insurance, you will also have to pay into the state pool, either through income tax or wage withholding. Some other posts and stories about his plan: Governor comments on health care reform (blog post) Governor's health plan flatlines (blog post) Is health reform dead? (blog post) Poll: Californians favor health care overhaul (blog post) Assembly passes health reform legislation (blog post) 'Standard for the rest of the nation' (blog post) Locals split on plan (Californian story) &nbsp; Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger hasn't given up on passing a health plan that covers all Californians. According to the Associated Press, his staff is working to fix the previous plan.&nbsp; &quot;Now we'll try again,&quot; Schwarzenegger said. &quot;We will continue on, keeping the stakeholders together, fine-tuning it and seeing if we can improve on it since we have the time now, then be back again. We feel very confident.&quot; He said he is not willing to break apart the plan, as some have suggested, to tackle only children's health care or address problems with Medi-Cal, the state insurance plan for the poor. Schwarzenegger spent months negotiating a $14.7 billion health care package with Democratic leaders last year, only to watch it fail in a state Senate committee in late January after an analysis raised concerns about its financing. Your thoughts? What should he &quot;fix&quot; in the old plan and what should he keep? To refresh your memory about what his original plan included read the post, &quot;Governor's plan carries penalties for people who opt out of health coverage.&quot; Here are some highlights from the old plan: All Californians will be required to have health insurance. Insurers must guarantee coverage. Access to public programs, like Medi-Cal and Healthy Families, will be expanded. Medi-Cal reimbursement rates will be increased to encourage more participation from providers, hospitals and health plans. Since these rates will be increased, hospitals will have to pay 4 percent of their revenues and doctors will have to pay 2 percent to the state. People can make pre-tax contributions into Health Saving Accounts. Businesses with 10 or more employees will have to offer coverage or pay 4 percent of their payroll into a state pot. To combat diabetes, Medi-Cal, the California Diabetes Program and community organizations will develop a statewide initiative to institute interventions, screening, prevention and self-management. To combat medical errors, all providers must use electronic prescribing by 2010, among other things. The state will remove statutory and regulatory barriers to help expand low-cost health care models, like retail-based medical clinics. If you opt out of insurance, you will also have to pay into the state pool, either through income tax or wage withholding. Some other posts and stories about his plan: Governor comments on health care reform (blog post) Governor's health plan flatlines (blog post) Is health reform dead? (blog post) Poll: Californians favor health care overhaul (blog post) Assembly passes health reform legislation (blog post) 'Standard for the rest of the nation' (blog post) Locals split on plan (Californian story) &nbsp; en-us <p>Step 1:&nbsp; Everybody on Medicare.</p> <p>Step 2:&nbsp; Anyone who wants additional coverage can buy it at their own cost, after they pay into Medicare.</p> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/ehagedorn/25826/#c_232374 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/ehagedorn/25826/#c_232374 <p>Step 1:&nbsp; Everybody on Medicare.</p> <p>Step 2:&nbsp; Anyone who wants additional coverage can buy it at their own cost, after they pay into Medicare.</p> <p>I applaud Governor Schwarzenegger for putting the proposal forward. It keeps the issue out in front of the public, which is a valuable proposition in itself. However, this country does not need 50 states with 50 differing ways to cover all the people living in the United States of America. One of the real drawbacks to this nation being a health care market instead of having a health care system is that there are so many differing plans with differing terminology and differing coverages that the costs to administer this market are astronomically high and counter productive.  All these various plans have meant non-affordability for almost 50 million Americans and forced many more to be under insured. It is wrong to bankrupt people over health care, or to force married people to divorce over health care, or to deny coverage for a previous condition. There must be universal health care coverage for all, and it needs to be addressed at the federal government level.  </p> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/ehagedorn/25826/#c_232588 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/ehagedorn/25826/#c_232588 <p>I applaud Governor Schwarzenegger for putting the proposal forward. It keeps the issue out in front of the public, which is a valuable proposition in itself. However, this country does not need 50 states with 50 differing ways to cover all the people living in the United States of America. One of the real drawbacks to this nation being a health care market instead of having a health care system is that there are so many differing plans with differing terminology and differing coverages that the costs to administer this market are astronomically high and counter productive.  All these various plans have meant non-affordability for almost 50 million Americans and forced many more to be under insured. It is wrong to bankrupt people over health care, or to force married people to divorce over health care, or to deny coverage for a previous condition. There must be universal health care coverage for all, and it needs to be addressed at the federal government level.  </p>