Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday proposed a sweeping overhaul of the way health care is purchased and delivered in California that would mandate new contributions from employers, individuals, health plans, health care providers and the government...

The governor's proposal would shift costs so the insured are not paying higher premiums to offset the costs of treating uninsured patients who flood emergency rooms when they get sick. Those costs boost premiums for the insured as much as 10 percent, according to health care studies.

Schwarzenegger would require health plans to sell insurance to anyone, no matter how sick they are. It would require individuals to have health insurance. And it would require employers who do not provide coverage to pay a 4 percent payroll tax that would go to an insurance pool if they have 10 or more workers. Doctors and hospitals would have to pay a percentage of their revenues into the system.

The plan would also include a massive expansion of government health care programs for the poor, which currently are largely limited to families and people with disabilities. All adults living under the poverty level -- individuals earning less than $9,800 a year -- would be covered. And the state would raise the rates it pays doctors who treat Medi-Cal patients.

The plan would ensure coverage for all children, regardless of their immigration status. Nearly 800,000 California children are uninsured...

Advisers to the governor described the plan as an expansion of the state's nearly $200 billion health care economy. Doctors and hospitals would get new patients, and health plans would get new members. Employers who now provide coverage for their workers would see premium costs go down.

"What we really heard today was a philosophy for how to create a new and improved health care marketplace," said Peter Harbage, a Sacramento-based health care consultant who advised the administration on the plan.

Harbage described the plan as a "centrist" solution...

For the complete article, please visit the Sacramento Bee website.