Sheila Kuehl

"What we want to do is to give them a little bit of a leg up," said former Sen. Sheila Kuehl, a Santa Monica Democrat who is helping Berg launch the institute.

The legislative language for state-level single payer is already written--in California. Senate Single-payer bill  SB840, originally introduced by the far-seeing Sen. Sheila Kuehl, passed the state Legislature twice, only to be vetoed twice by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. It's been tinkered with, updated and reintroduced as SB810, but remains in a chokehold by the health insurance lobby. 

The attendees are: Ducheny, Sen. Ellen Corbett, D-San Leandro; Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles; Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles; Sen. Dave Cox, R-Fair Oaks (Sacramento County); Sen. Dick Ackerman, R-Irvine; Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica; and Sen. Bob Margett, R-Arcadia (Los Angeles County).

He vetoed most measures that would have required insurers to add new coverage, including maternity services, orthodontic procedures to repair cleft palates, hearing aids, mental health treatment and durable medical equipment. Schwarzenegger even vetoed a measure that had been part of his own initial health care proposal. That measure, SB 1440 by Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica), would have blocked insurers from keeping more than 15% of premiums for administrative costs and profits. The governor said that without the other provisions of his plan -- including a requirement that all Californians hold health insurance -- the measure was "exactly what I did not want to see this year -- a one-sided, piecemeal approach to health care reform." Schwarzenegger rejected the Legislature's primary solution to "balance billing," a practice in which doctors and hospitals charge patients for care that their insurers refuse to cover. The bill also would have set a rate for insurers to pay emergency room doctors with whom they did not have contracts and would have created a system for resolving disputes. Shame on Schwarzenegger. I have said it before, but this is supposed to be the new and improved Arnold. And this was supposed to be his year for health care reform. But since the legislature didn't do exactly what he wanted, the Gov said let 'em go bankrupt! Sure sounds a lot more like George W. than Ronald Reagan. Reagan reportedly had a sign over his desk that read, "There's no limit to what you can accomplish if you don't care who takes credit for it."