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California Senate Kills $15 Billion Health Insurance Plan

www.heartland.org

A California Senate committee has rejected Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to provide government-controlled health insurance to millions more of California's citizens.

The January vote of the Senate Health Committee against the $14.9 billion plan came after nearly a year of tense negotiations between Schwarzenegger (R) and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuņez (D). Last December the two announced a bipartisan compromise on a plan to add 3.6 million of California's five million citizens without health insurance to the rolls of the insured by 2010.

Called "an incredible plan" by Nuņez, the proposal--which would have appeared on the California ballot in November if lawmakers had approved it--included a mandate requiring nearly all Californians to buy private health insurance or enroll in a government program that would have been expanded to meet the additional demand.

Analysts called the plan unworkable, saying the revenue sources were too unsure and the mandate too difficult to enforce.

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