Amidst the talk of the 2008 Senate races, Senator Barbara Boxer may be the most endangered incumbent in the class of 2010.

[http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/460989.html Polling came out this week finding that she narrowly trails Arnold Schwarzenegger in a projected matchup.]

And now the health insurance industry has come up with a devilish scheme to prop up Arnold, increase their revenues by hundreds of millions of dollars, end the drive for genuine healthcare reform all in one fell swoop…with Boxer’s Senate seat being collateral damage in this scenario.

We'll take a look below…cross-posted at the [http://www.GuaranteedHealthcare.org/blog National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association’s] Breakroom Blog, as we organize to make 2007 the Year of GUARANTEED healthcare on the single-payer model.

It all hinges on the drive for health care reform in California. There’s a fake debate going on right now, with insurers funding both sides. Governor Arnold’s proposal is to require individuals to purchase expensive, wasteful, private insurance products. Some Democrats in the legislature are countering with a proposal to force employers to purchase these same products.

Really, what’s not for insurers to like?

And now we are presented with a strange political kabuki between these two proposals. Advocates on both sides are bashing the other—with arguments that would apply exactly equally to their own proposal.

So yesterday, in a bit of Capitol irony, Schwarzenegger’s health care plan was heard on Halloween—and it is scary and full of treats for insurance donors. The charge that the legislators made against his plan? [http://www.mercurynews.com/localnewsheadlines/ci_7337740 It’s unaffordable!] But their counter-plan, for so-called employer mandates, is just as bad. That’s the system we have now, but more. And it’s a recipe out-of-control premiums, rising co-pays and deductibles, and an entire industry devoted to denial of care. In short, we’d have the healthcare crisis we already do.

We don’t know the third act of this drama. But since the sides aren’t really too far apart, there’s a good chance that Schwarzenegger will compromise, look like a conquering hero, bring fake healthcare reform to California, and be all set up to turn the wonderful Barbara Boxer out of the Senate in 2010, with full complicity of a number of legislators who are heavy on the payroll of the big insurance corporations.

[http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cap1nov01,1,2181218,print.column?coll=la-headlines-california George Skelton, dean of the California press, doesn’t think so,] but neither he nor I are privy to the planning sessions that the insurers have convened between Arnold and their Democratic allies.

The sad part is that after the legislature passed a guaranteed healthcare, single-payer bill last year, Arnold set the terms of this year’s debate by vetoing it. Now the Capitol insiders are running around saying, “let’s get something, anything done so we look good.” [http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_7275575 Malinda Markowitz, RN, a member of CNA/NNOC’s Council of Presidents, takes on this] argument, saying:

Sadly, the main beneficiaries of a rushed "compromise" will be the same insurance companies that created the present crisis. They would harvest millions of new customers, with the government using its power and the public purse to further an insurance industry that will continue to be able to profiteer and deny care.
We don't have to turn just to Massachusetts to see an example of how this can lead to disastrous public policy. A decade ago, the same "consensus" pushed the hurried passage of energy deregulation. That was followed by blackouts, skyrocketing energy costs for consumers, financial calamity for the state, and open thievery by Enron and other energy corporations.
Californians should demand that legislators pull the plug before we plunge into another disaster.

And in case we needed it, here’s one more reason to fight for genuine healthcare reform on the single-payer model: [http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-10-30-uninsuredvets_N.htm nearly two million veterans,] who already face a number of challenges, have no coverage at all. That’s just not right.

When is a politician going to change something? Makes me want to vote for Hilary!

:et's face it insurance companies have a strong lobby and contribute to election campaigns. This gives them power to help make policy. The "ole boy network" is still strong. I don't have any easy answers but we are not headed in a good direction. Health care insurance in this country is a billion dollar business and the benefits for the insured is decreasing. We recently had a health care provider (in ME) tell their employess that in order to keep their jobs the health insurance would need to be dropped. This is totally unfair but after talking to a number of small facilites may be the new price of doing business.