Laurie Rubiner

California is struggling to cope with a wide array of serious policy challenges: Job creation, education, health care costs, a budgetary crisis, political leadership, immigration and regional inequities. An opportunity exists to tackle these issues head on, but partisanship and parochialism threaten to stifle real progress.

The New America Foundation's California Program delivered its analysis of the "State of the State" in Los Angeles on Jan. 19, 2005. Panelists provided a wide range of innovative proposals to address the most… more

On Election Day, California voters narrowly rejected a ballot initiative -- Proposition 72 -- that would have required businesses with 50 or more employees to provide health insurance to their workers or contribute financially to a state health insurance pool.

That defeat was not terribly surprising, given that preelection polls revealed a steady erosion of support for the measure as some sectors of the business community invested millions of dollars in a drive against it. After years of searching for a solution to the state's… more

Once upon a time in America, there was a young dad who toiled each day assembling automobiles at a local factory. It was hard work, but it provided him with ample treasures: enough money to put food on the table, pay his mortgage, and make sure that his wife and three children had excellent medical coverage

Today, that man's daughter also works long hours as an office manager for a local auto-repair business. But the insurance provided by her employer… more

The American health system is rapidly approaching crisis. For those fortunate enough to have health insurance, health care costs are escalating — health insurance premiums rose almost 14 percent in 2003, the biggest increase in over a decade. For the 43 million people who went without health insurance last year, the system has already collapsed. As more and more people feel the strain of spiraling costs and face the fear of losing coverage entirely, the public increasingly cites these dual… more

Believe it or not, there is a politically appealing way to achieve universal health-care coverage: simply require all U.S. residents to buy insurance, with government help if necessary.

To understand why and how this might work, consider that the majority of those who lack health insurance are not unemployed. Nearly 60 percent of uninsured Americans work full time; another 16 percent work part time. These tend to be workers whose employers don't offer them health insurance (because they are low-wage… more

Last week Sen. John Edwards became the first presidential candidate in U.S. history to propose solving the problem of the uninsured by making health insurance mandatory. Although his proposed health care mandate is limited to children and young people -- all those under the age of 21 -- it offers the most promising way forward for eventually covering all 41 million uninsured Americans, and it marks a major turning point in our nation's health care debate.

The United States spends… more

New America's Jacob Hacker and Laurie Rubiner discuss the political battle over public and private social benefits.