Arnold’s Hypocritical Comments about Health Care : Indybay

Arnold’s Hypocritical Comments about Health Care

Randy Shaw 19.NOV.04
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger told the San Francisco Examiner that the state should require people to purchase health insurance because the uninsured “are taking advantage of the system.” The Governor emphasized the need to expand health care a month after publicly opposing Prop 72, which would have expanded health coverage to millions of Californians and stopped corporations like McDonalds and Walmart from abusing the system.

Governor Schwarzenegger’s analysis of the state’s health care problem confirms the actor’s difficulty in connecting his words to actions. While most Californians do not view Schwarzengegger’s contradictions as hypocrisy, his comments about the health crisis can only lead to such a conclusion.

Schwarzenegger’s stated in an interview in the November 18 Examiner that he “likes the idea that we have, like car insurance, where people {would} have to carry health insurance, because I think too many people are just taking advantage of the system, and of course one has to cover the poor people and the people who can’t afford it.”

Let’s break this down.

First, the Governor wants to require all Californians to have health insurance.

Second, he believes people are accessing free health care when they can afford to pay for it.

Third, he “of course” realizes that the state would have to pay the cost of health care for those who cannot afford it.

On November 2, California had a chance to adopt a health care plan that satisfies the Governor’s goals. One difference was that under Prop 172, it was large businesses, not individuals, who were “taking advantage” of the system by not paying for employee health care when they could afford to do so. The only other difference was that it was these employers, not the cash-poor state, who would foot the bill.

Prop 172 lost by a little more than 1% of the vote, and the Governor could easily have ensured its passage. But he opposed the measure, and, without any specific health plan of his own, lays down a roadmap that is nearly identical to that of Prop 172.

Schwarzenegger then went on to complain about people “abusing the system” by using emergency rooms unnecessarily:

There are just too many people uninsured and they take advantage of the system

So the Governor apparently sees the health care problem as caused by middle-class people who can afford insurance but prefer obtaining care from emergency rooms in public hospitals. Anyone know an actual person who meets the Governor’s description?

The Governor could be accused of cleverly shifting the “taking advantage of the system” argument from the big corporations who can afford to cover employees but refuse to do. But that gives him too much credit.

The Governor knows that millions of Californians are concerned about the lack of health insurance and rising premiums, so he has to acknowledge the problem. But although he told the Examiner that he is “having a lot of meetings about health care,” he has no intention of taking any action.

I know that conclusion may seem harsh to those who believe Arnold’s line that he is a “man of action,” but the Governor’s conduct continually conflicts with his words.

During the recall election, Schwarzenegger repeatedly insisted that he would not raise money from special interests. But as the Chronicle highlighted in a front-page story this week, the Governor has doubled the special interest money taken in by Gray Davis during his first year in office.

Davis received blistering criticism for fundraising in 1999, but the same media who crucified the Democrat accepts Arnold’s hypocrisy at face value.

Remember all of Arnold’s bold words about Davis and the Democrats caving in to the prison guard’s union, and that he would change things? Well, as part of the budget deal the Governor did change the union’s power---by giving them unprecedented control of the entire prison system.

Fortunately, Federal Judge Thelton Henderson this week used his power to undo the authority over prison discipline that Schwarzenegger blithely gave the union. Who knows what goodies the Governor has in store for his new friends this budget year.

Remember the Governor saying he would sign a revised undocumented immigrant drivers license bill? Well, Democrats presented him with a bill that addressed his objections but then Arnold raised new concerns---leaving thousands of immigrants driving without licenses.

Schwarzenegger promised to be the Education Governor. But it was his opposition to Prop 66 that sunk the measure, and $3 billion that could have gone to schools next year will instead go toward imprisoning non-violent offenders.

The chief area where the media has exposed the Governor’s hypocrisy is the state budget.

Despite promising to bring back fiscal prudence to California, the Governor preferred to borrow $15 billion rather than raise any taxes to meet the deficit. Now, Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill reports that the state deficit will be $6.7 billion for 2005-06 and $10 billion the following year.

If Gray Davis had not already been recalled, these huge deficits despite the massive borrowing would have done him in this year.

In 2004, Arnold got away with not raising taxes because Central Valley Democrats who won narrowly in 2002 feared supporting new taxes shortly before facing the voters. But Schwarzenegger’s candidates failed to unseat any of these incumbents, and these swing Democrats are far more likely this year to support new taxes to ensure adequate education funding.

The Governor has no easy way out of the budget mess in 2005, as he can only borrow $3 billion, which is less than half the deficit. His easiest solution is to raise state income taxes on those earning over $200,000, which he can justify by noting that Californians favored Kerry and that his election would have imposed such tax increases.

Arnold had an easy time of it in 2004, but how he handles 2005 will be the true test of his popularity.

Arnold’s Hypocritical Comments about Health Care

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