Saturday, December 6, 2003

California Politics: We Have Seen the Future

And it looks like Jeb Bush's Florida - where Schwarzenegger's budget direct Donna Arduin wielded her budget axe before coming to California.

Florida's lessons on cutting health insurance for kids by Marjie Lundstrom  Sacramento Bee 12/06/03

<< [Schwarzenegger] is the governor who asserted during the September debate that "we have to make sure that every child in California is insured," then turned around and proposed capping enrollment in the state's Healthy Families program, which provides low-cost insurance for low-and moderate-income children.

<< That's what Florida did.

<< And here's what Florida got. ...

<< As of Friday, kids on the waiting list for that health-insurance program had soared to 72,569, of which more than 45,000 are a direct result of the cap.

<< If Healthy Families is similarly capped in California, the wait list is projected by children's advocates to be anywhere from 63,000 to 144,000.

<< Think of it: Tens of thousands of California kids, attending school and bumping through childhood without health insurance for the routine: eye exams, immunizations, dental care. Or for the big: cancer, diabetes, asthma.

<< Children's advocates in Florida, fighting to reverse the policy, aren't surprised California is considering the same, given Schwarzenegger's importation of former Florida budget director Donna Arduin. >>

Ah, yes. Compassionate conservatism. Coming up: the Hollywood version.

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