The California Federation of Labor and the California Nurses Association—which led the successful drive against GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s anti-union referenda two years ago—blasted the health care plan “The Terminator” unveiled Jan. 8.

The governor’s plan is “little more than a fresh coat of paint on a collapsing house,” said CNA President Deborah Burger.

Cal Fed Executive Secretary-Treasurer Art Pulaski was even more caustic, calling the governor’s plan one “that Wal-Mart would love and Wal-Mart workers would hate.”

“This will be a boon to insurance companies, but a bust for most workers. This plan requires all Californians to buy health insurance with no guarantee that it will be affordable or that coverage will be adequate,” Pulaski added.

Schwarzenegger’s plan “creates an incentive for employers who currently provide health care to drop coverage and instead pay only a minimal tax. The proposed employer contribution is so low that even Wal-Mart, a corporation known for its minimal employee healthcare coverage, already exceeds the requirements,” he added.

The governor’s plan would require all Californians, including the one-fifth who are uninsured, to buy health care coverage.

Schwarzenegger also would require all businesses to offer health care coverage and mandate that insurers cover people with pre-existing medical conditions. Health insurers now routinely reject covering people with pre-existing conditions, forcing them into expensive emergency-room care or no care at all.

Instead of trying the fix Schwarzenegger proposed, Burger said the state should enact a single-payer government-run health care system, eliminating the private insurers entirely. That would also eliminate their pocketing of premiums and denial of care.

The Democratic-run state legislature approved a single-payer plan last year, but Schwarzenegger vetoed it. Then the insurers poured millions of dollars into their successful campaign against a CNA-backed ballot initiative to enact single-payer.

CNA’s Burger said mandating coverage for all—without discussing costs—isn’t enough.

The biggest problem, she said, is that the governor would “criminalize the uninsured by forcing them to buy insurance, a plan that shifts the costs and risk from the insurers to individuals.” Burger said “that won’t work for millions of Californians, and is a huge gift to the insurance industry.

“What we don’t see is any discussion of what type of health coverage people will buy. There are no limits on skyrocketing health premiums, no requirements on what will be included in the required plans, and a new call to deregulate existing public protections,” she warned.

Schwarzenegger’s plan could leave many people in the nation’s largest state—which has one-eighth of the U.S. population—with health coverage that covers little and costs a lot, Burger added.

“Many Californians will end up with cut-rate plans that discourage people from using their health coverage, have huge out-of-pocket costs, and expose them to financial ruin in the event of a serious illness or accident,” she concluded.

—Press Associates, Inc.