BILL NUMBER:  SB 840
  VETOED	DATE: 09/22/2006




To the Members of the California State Senate:  While I commend Sen.
Sheila Kuehl's commitment and dedication to providing health care
coverage for all Californians, I must return SB 840 without my
signature because I cannot support a government-run health care
system.  Socialized medicine is not the solution to our state's
health care problems. This bill would require an extraordinary
redirection of public and private funding by creating a vast new
bureaucracy to take over health insurance and medical care for
Californians - a serious and expensive mistake. Such a program would
cost the state billions and lead to significant new taxes on
individuals and businesses, without solving the critical issue of
affordability. I won't jeopardize th e economy of our state for such
a purpose.  SB 840 relies on the failed old paradigm of using one
source - this time the government - to solve the complex problem of
providing medical care for our people. It uses the same one-sided
approach tried in SB 2, the employer-mandated coverage measure signed
into law before I became governor. I opposed SB 2 because it placed
nearly the entire burden on employers, and voters repealed it in
2004. I want to see a new paradigm that addresses affordability,
shared responsibility and the promotion of healthy living.  Single
payer, government-run health care does none of this. Yet it would
reduce a person's ability to choose his or her own physician, make
people wait longer for treatment and raise the cost of that
treatment.  With my partners in the Legislature, I look forward in
2007 to working to develop a comprehensive and systemic approach to
health care that not only provides affordable medical treatment to
people when they are ill, but that strives to make sure people don't
get sick in the first place. An approach that supports cost
containment and recognizes the shared responsibility of individuals,
employers and government. That promotes personal responsibility and
builds on existing pri vate and public systems.  As part of this
comprehensive approach, my administration already has worked hard on
the fight against obesity, a leading cause of disease in this
country. I signed the landmark Healthy Schools Now Act, which bans
junk food and sugar-laden drinks in public schools. Our budget
included $18 million to replace that junk food with fresh fruits and
vegetables so we can start promoting healthy living choices for our
youngsters.  Recently I signed AB 2384 (Leno) to make fruits and
vegetables more affordable and accessible in low-income communities
and AB 2226 (Garcia) to help inform 7th grade students and their
parents or guardian(s) of the risk of Type 2 Diabetes.  Our efforts
to effectively prevent and detect diseases extend far beyond obesity
prevention. I recently signed legislation to ensure early detection
of hearing loss through newborn hearing screenings (AB 2651- Jones).
Since Ive taken office we have expanded newborn health screenings
from 33 to 85, dramatically increasing the ability to prevent or
detect disease early to keep our children as healthy as possible from
the beginning.  On the question of access, I've made children's
coverage a priority, resulting in nearly a quarter million additional
children covered by our Medi-Cal and Healthy Families programs.
Building on an $80 million budget investment to target uninsured
children who are eligible, but not enrolled in state health care
programs, I signed legislation to eliminate roadblocks to coverage,
streamline enrollment for Medi-Cal and Healthy Families and reduce
the number of kids that lose coverage due to adminis trative
barriers. (SB 437  Escutia, AB 1948  Montanez, and AB 1851  Coto) And
on the question of affordability, I reached agreement with the
Legislature to provide discounts on prescription drugs of up to 40 -
60 percent off brand name and generic drugs for our neediest
citizens.

But we're not stopping there.  I convened a California Health Care
Summit in July that for the first time brought together experts on
all sides of this issue. At the table with us were representatives
from academia, government, business, health care and labor. From that
summit and follow-up meetings, there emerged a strong sense of how
to proceed on health care reform. Affordability is the key to making
our system work for everyone, and affordability is exactly what we
are dedicating ourselves to.  By implementing a statewide plan
advancing health information technology that I called for in a recent
executive order, we can shave billions of dollars off healthcare
costs in California.  By creating the 500 elementary school-based
health centers I called for in our Health Summit, medical treatment
will be more accessible to our children who need it most and they can
avoid costly emergency care. We have made progress toward this goal
by enacting legislation (AB 2561  Ridley-Thomas) to support
Californias school health centers by increasing cross-agency
collaboration, gathering data about services delivered in school
health centers throughout the state and providing  technical
assistance to aid in the development of new and existing school
health centers.  With the same willingness to compromise that we
showed this past legislative session on issues like global warming, I
know we can reach our goals. I look forward to working with Sen.
Kuehl and other members of the Legislature, as well as the experts
who participated in our summit and other stakeholders, to create a
healthier California.  For these reasons, I am returning SB 840
without my signature.

Sincerely,

Arnold Schwarzenegger