The New America Foundation has worked extensively with Gov. Schwarzenegger and other groups in California to craft the health reform plan discussed in the article below.

SACRAMENTO -- In a boost to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's political priority for the year, some of the biggest players in the state's healthcare industry have agreed to commit millions of dollars to a campaign for universal healthcare access.

The yet-unnamed alliance, which plans to announce its creation today, includes a labor giant, the Service Employees International Union; the state's largest doctors lobby, the California Medical Assn.; the state's biggest nonprofit hospital chain, Catholic Healthcare West; and three major insurers: Kaiser Permanente, Blue Shield of California and Health Net.

"For the first time ever, the major players are not in their bunkers throwing grenades at each other," said Joe Dunn, chief executive of the California Medical Assn. "Everyone is coming together in a sincere effort to work out a plan for reforming medicine in California in a way that works to improve patients' ability to be treated by their doctor."

The coalition's members have not agreed to support all elements of any plan that emerges from negotiations with Schwarzenegger and the Legislature, and in fact several have expressed concerns about the governor's proposal. But the alliance members said they would support the effort to ensure access to medical care for all Californians and have accepted Schwarzenegger's notion of "shared responsibility" — that all participants in healthcare, including patients, insurers and businesses, must give up something.

The alliance's formation is intended to counter any campaign that arises to block an overhaul of the state's healthcare system. Such concerns are not hypothetical: A referendum paid for mostly by business groups in 2004 was able to nullify California's last major effort at expanding medical insurance by repealing a law that would have required all mid- and large-size employers to provide coverage....

"We didn't want to see comprehensive proposals picked apart by people who object to one piece of it," said Tom Epstein, a spokesman for Blue Shield. The alliance, he said, "requires negotiating in good faith and accepting that we're all going to have to compromise and not stick it to each other to get what we want." ...

For the complete article, please see the Los Angeles Times website.