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As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has released his budget threatened by $14 billion of red ink, many are asking whether California can afford the ambitious health care reforms that passed the state Assembly in December. Given the social and economic costs of leaving as many as 6.5 million Californians uninsured, the better question may be: Can we afford not to?

Len Nichols, Director of the Health Policy Program at the New America Foundation, made the following statement today after the California Assembly voted to approve health care legislation that would cover all Californians. New America has provided policy and communications advice to Governor Schwarzenegger, his staff, and to Democratic leaders throughout the reform debate. Many of New America’s core health reform principles, including an individual mandate, are included in the proposal:

President Bush's veto of a bill that would have allowed California to achieve near-universal health care for children comes at a critical juncture in the state.

Employer-based coverage is decreasing, enrollment in the state's Healthy Families program is increasing and efforts by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democrats to overhaul the health care system have not yielded a solution a month into a special legislative session.

The New America Foundation today released "Coverage Without Gaps: Implementing Seamless Health Insurance Coverage," a policy report on its model of seamless health insurance that would create a health insurance system where, once coverage is affordable and accessible, Californians would be required to purchase it. Seamless coverage would make universal health coverage a reality in California.

SACRAMENTO — There are 4.1 million New Yorkers who get healthcare coverage under Medicaid, the federal safety net for the poor. For each of them, Uncle Sam spends an average of $5,891 a year.

In California, there are 6.5 million low-income people who rely on the same program. For each of them, Uncle Sam spends just $3,419.

Who makes up the difference?

Analysts largely agree that if you want everyone to have health insurance, you’re going to have to require it. “Individual mandates” to purchase health insurance would also help insurance markets work better than they do now, since insurers would then find it far easier to attract a balance of high and low risks if all had to buy something. Therefore they would need to do far less medical underwriting (risk evaluation) and targeted marketing, and that would lower the cost of insurance to us all.

The report released today by the Hoover Institution confirms that insured families across California pay a "hidden tax" to provide uncompensated health care to the uninsured. The existence of this "hidden tax" is no longer in dispute; what's under debate is its magnitude, which is hard to measure precisely because it is "hidden."

This memo describes the range of estimates that various experts have made, highlights some of the reasons for differing judgments, and then lets the reader draw his or her own conclusions about the reasonable range of hidden tax estimates.

The debate over major health care reform in California heats up this week at the state Capitol. Later today, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez unveils a series of major amendments to his health care legislation. Tomorrow, a plan from Senate President Don Perata will be heard in committee. As the program reports, the committee hearings are the first public action after weeks of private negotiations between lawmakers, Governor Schwarzenegger, and interest groups.

People who refuse to obtain health insurance could be tracked down by the state or a private contractor, enrolled in a plan and fined until they pay their premiums under one proposal Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration is considering as part of his vision for covering all Californians...

SACRAMENTO — Spurning Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal to guarantee health insurance for all Californians, Republican leaders in the state Senate offered a far more modest alternative Tuesday, intended to increase clinics for the poor and encourage the purchase of high-deductible policies covering catastrophes.

If Arnold Schwarzenegger, governor of the biggest state, with one of the most diverse economies in the nation, can bring about a program of universal health insurance, then it stands to reason that other states can as well.

Or can they?

California does represent a broad cross-section of the country. But the Schwarzenegger plan is a delicately hung chandelier of federal matching dollars and mutual sacrifice, much of it carefully arrayed about that state's unique political and health care landscape...

Partial Transcipt:

WOLF BLITZER, CNN: ... It's a bold and controversial move. The California governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, calling for universal health insurance in his state. Is it, though, part of a national trend? Let's turn to CNN's Mary Snow. She's joining us from New York with the story -- Mary.

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, with no clear solutions in sight, health experts say many states will be looking to California for answers on how to fix healthcare.