Yesterday Arnold vetoed
legislation requiring health insurers to pay for maternity benefits,
hospitals to charge less, and hospitals to be more accountable to
communities for closing facilities. That’s more evidence Schwarzenegger
is not the man of the people he presented himself as when it comes to
standing up to big industries. The health care industry he sided with
is a seven figure donor to Schwarzenegger’s campaign committees.

The Guv’s stand on bills still on his desk to make prescription drugs
more available and affordable will determine whether the
medical-insurance complex gets a clean sweep. Recent polling from the
Public Policy Institute is already showing that on health care the
public does not trust Arnold. Voters report Arnold’s opposition to Prop
72’s health coverage mandate does not matter to them. Maybe if the Gov
used his broom to clean up his own cash register politics, rather than
to sweep off his desk patient protections, the public might give his
health care opinions more weight.