AB1X-X Defeated in Senate Health Committee

AB1X-X(Nunez) was defeated in the Senate Health Committee today on a 7 no votes, 1 yes vote and 3 not voting hearing. This is a stunning reversal of fortune for the Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. It 's down fall began last week when Senator Sheila Kuehl the Chair of the Senate Health Committee held an 11 hour hearing on the bill. A financial analysis prepared by the Legislative Analyst Office was the opening presentation. It was a devastating report which in the end not only challenged the rose projections being used by the Governor's office it showed a $4 billion dollar deficit in year 4 of the program. The bill ( all 210 pages) was broken down into sections and a full hearing was had on each section. It was immediately clear there were more stake holders opposing than supporting. A vote was scheduled for that day but at the request of the President Pro Tem Senator Don Perata the vote was postponed until today in the hopes of getting more support. Unfortunately for the Speaker the support continued to erode leading to todays vote. Not in my 15 years working in the capitol have I seen a bill with that much momentum so thoroughly defeated.

Do not think we have won! We will see many of the provisions in AB1X-X introduced this year as stand alone bills. I expect to see a bill on "medical loss ratio" restrictions, individual underwriting prohibitions or restrictions, GI in the individual market place, small group reform and possibly a state run connector to arraign for and market all individual products. We dodged the big one and now it is time to gear up for the aftermath.