By Aurelio Rojas
The Sacramento Bee
October 22, 2007
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s health care plans have a lot in common, but the labor unions that have attacked the governor’s plan have been largely silent about Clinton’s.
“From labor’s viewpoint, the health care plan looks a lot worse when the other side proposes it,” said Jack Pitney, professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College in Southern California.
That irony was underscored last week when the California Federation of Labor announced it has hired Chris Lehane, an ex-aide to former President Clinton, to direct its campaign against Schwarzenegger’s health plan.
During a recent interview, Lehane acknowledged similarities between the Schwarzenegger and Clinton plans but quipped, “You don’t hear many Democrats say that.”
Pitney, meanwhile, predicts that labor will hold off on criticizing Clinton.
“I don’t think they’re going to take many shots at her during the campaign,” Pitney said. “But should she be elected and try to get her proposal through Congress, labor is going to argue it doesn’t do enough.”
A comment posted in response to this article:
Comment:
By Don McCanne, MD
Mandate to purchase unaffordable plans?
The average cost of employer-sponsored family coverage is now over $12,000, and that does not include deductibles, copayments, coinsurance, and out-of-pocket spending for products and services that are not covered. U.S. median household income is $48,000. Those numbers no longer work. Private health plans are a vestige of the last century. We need a 21st century model that pools all risks and funds the pool through equitable tax policies. Gov. Schwarzenegger and Sen. Clinton insist that the solution is to require individuals to purchase private plans that they cannot afford. That might work for the wealthy, and for the poor on welfare programs, but that does not work for the majority of us who are just trying to make ends meet.
http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/446457.html