Do you think the recently announced health insurance rate increases will affect public support for health care reform?
Anthem Blue Cross recently informed many of its approximately 800,000 individual policyholders that premiums would increase by as much as 39% starting March 1. (Murphy/Alonzo-Zaldivar, AP/Ventura County Star, 2/12). The insurer also told members that it might start adjusting premiums more often than once a year (California Healthline, 2/10). The parent company of Anthem Blue Cross is blaming the California insurer's rate increases on a range of issues, from the bad economy to the aging population.
Victoria Colliver reported Thursday in the San Francisco Chronicle that Anthem Blue Cross is not the only company raising rates for individual policyholders. Members of other health insurers say they've also received notice of rate hikes. Companies in four other states have announced increases as well.
The Administration has pointed to the Anthem increase as further evidence of why health reform efforts in Congress should continue.
Do you think the recently announced health insurance rate increases will affect public support for health care reform?
Will Steve Poizner's accusations that Meg Whitman's advisor attempted to force him out of the governor's race hurt his campaign or hers?
The week got off to a odd start when GOP gubernatorial hopeful Steve Poizner held a press conference to announce that a campaign strategist for Republican rival Meg Whitman had made "threats" designed to drive him out of the race. Poizner's campaign released a copy of an e-mail sent by Whitman advisor Mike Murphy that asks a Poizner consultant if the candidate would consider dropping out of the race. According to the e-mail, which Poizner also sent to the FBI, the U.S. Attorneys Office, state Attorney General Jerry Brown, and the Fair Political Practices Commission, Murphy says Whitman's campaign could spend $40 million "tearing up Steve if we must." Poizner called Murphy's tactics "highly improper and unethical."
Read more:
Poizner claims political extortion by gubernatorial rival Whitman, Sacramento Bee
Will Steve Poizner's accusations that Meg Whitman's advisor attempted to force him out of the governor's race hurt his campaign or hers?
Should a public health insurance plan be offered as part of national health care reform legislation?
The House and Senate health care reform bills each are around 2,000 pages long. The public health insurance option fills less than 15 pages in each bill, but is making headlines and stirring heated debate between Democrats and Republicans, and among Democrats in both chambers.
In both the House and Senate versions, the so-called "public option" is a proposed health insurance plan offered by the U.S. federal government. The idea is that if a government-run option were offered to compete with private insurers, it could help keep costs in check and ensure quality. It would compete with similar private insurance plans in a newly-created Health Insurance Exchange or marketplace, from which individuals, families and small businesses could buy health insurance that meets a minimum federal standard. Those covered by other employer plans or state insurance plans such as Medicare would not be eligible for coverage from the exchange and could not obtain this form of federal health insurance. The federal government's health insurance plan would be financed by premiums with no subsidy from the government. The Senate version would allow states to opt out of the federal program.
Should a public health insurance plan be offered as part of national health care reform legislation?
Resources:
The Kaiser Family Foundation's Side-By-Side Comparison of Major Health Care Reform Proposals
Pro-Publica's ongoing coverage
Forum with Michael Krasny: Senate Committee Passes Health Care Bill (Oct. 14, 2009)
The California Report: The Future of Insurance Age Rating (Oct. 27, 2009)
Would you support a bond request to finance a new state water plan?
This week the state legislature and the governor found enough common ground to agree in principle on a group of long awaited and much negotiated water bills.
As important as that step was according to Dr. Peter Gleick of the non-partisan Pacific Institute, an Oakland-based think tank, there's still a long way to go. Dr. Gleick is a well-respected water expert. This is what he had to say on his SFGate blog:
"Despite the happy face being put on by some of the bill's supporters, including Governor Schwarzenegger, I doubt anyone is truly happy with the end result. Perhaps that's too much to expect for a topic as complex as California water and for a bill that tries to do so much at once. I'm certainly not happy, but I believe there was a (mostly) good faith effort on the part of the governor and the legislators and all the other water interest groups to try and produce something."
»Read Dr. Peter Gleick's full assessment of the plan including what issues remain unanswered with the package of bills. (at sfgate.com)
Based on Gleick's comments, and San Jose Mercury News reporter Paul Rogers' report on This Week, would you support an estimated eleven billion dollars in water bonds on next November's ballot to finance a new state water plan?
How will the California state park closures and cuts affect you, and the state?
Frankly, I was surprised when I read the headline, "Schwarzenegger to receive national park award."
How could that be…didn't he just propose cutting $70 million dollars out of the state's park budget? Didn't he just propose closing about a third of the 279 state parks? And didn't he just announce as an alternative to all of the above, server cuts in services and reductions of hours that will among other things cause many parks to close except on weekends?
The governor had to make some hard choices this year, his supporters say in response to California's record $43 billion dollar budget shortfall. The proposed cuts his spokesman said do not mean that Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn't support parks. After all he has protected over 400,000 acres of park land, more than any governor in 50 years.
Never-the-less, according to San Francisco State Senator Mark Leno, the timing of the award is a "tragic irony."
These ironic moments are very difficult for politicians who have to live with the ebbs and flows of big challenges and for the public who has to live with the results.
How will the California state park closures and cuts affect you, and the state?
Is Jerry Brown using his job as Attorney General to further his political ambitions?
Attorney General Jerry Brown wants to be Governor of California, and while he has not formally declared his candidacy he has raised millions of dollars to finance such a run in the 2010 elections.
Meanwhile, Brown has been filing high profile lawsuits almost every week against some suspected wrong doer. Just in the last month he's sued a Beverly Hills investment advisor who had ties to Bernard Madoff, had a former healthcare clinic manager arrested in what he called a $2.2 million dollar medical rip-off, and sued six businesses and eight individuals for operating a scam targeted at small business. These filings, a legitimate part of his duties as Attorney General, have kept his name in the news, which is good for any candidate.
His chief rival San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has no vehicle that provides him as much free media statewide.
On a CNBC business show Wednesday, Brown announced a lawsuit against Boston-based State Street Bank and Trust for allegedly overcharging California's two largest pension funds $56 million dollars. During Brown's much touted encounter with the show's anchors, CNBC's Michelle Caruso-Cabrera asked, "What do you say to people who look at this who say this is a perfect example of the demagoguery of attorneys general when they want to run for governor?"
Brown says he is only doing his job. "In my book, there's nothing quaint about corporate fraud. There's nothing quaint about ripping off pension funds. And, I — along with attorneys general from across the nation — will continue to bring these high-priced rip-off artists to justice."
Is Jerry Brown using his job as Attorney General to further his political ambitions?
Is it politics or the governing structure that has paralyzed California?
There is no shortage of places to have your voice heard on almost any topic, including this site. But even with all of the opportunities to create and comment, scientifically conducted polls continue to serve an important purpose. They are the best instrument we have to track the opinions of a diverse group of citizens on important issues.
This week the venerable Field Poll released three polls that measure our optimism about the direction of the state and the country, the job performance of the Governor and the Legislature, and whether we should change the way we govern ourselves.
Surprisingly, in the poll released Thursday about our optimism, 48 percent of the registered California voters in the Field sample think the country is moving in the right direction, with 41 percent believing the opposite. Those numbers are in stark contrast to where they were in July of 2008 when only 15 percent thought the country was headed in the right direction and 75 percent believed the opposite.
When we turn to California the picture is entirely different. Not surprising in a state with 12.2 percent unemployment and a governor and legislature that were locked in a budget impasse for months, finally resulting in draconian cuts to many cherished programs.
Only 15 percent felt the state was generally going in the right direction while 78 percent think things are seriously on the wrong track. You have to go back to March of 2007 to find a majority 52 percent who felt the state was heading in the right direction, with 38 percent believing the opposite.
So how did the leadership drift so far from the expectations of the people who elected them, even during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression?
That leaves us with the question — is it politics or the governing structure that has the state with a reputation for innovation stopped dead in it tracks?
The Field Polls provide some answers. http://www.field.com/fieldpollonline/subscribers/
What do you think?