Healthcare reform....

California, the most socially advanced country in the nation is doing what it does best - leading the way in social reform.

I miss California but having been priced out and crowded out of the state of over 36 million people I can only hope that someday enough Californians will over-flow into Arizona to make it equally advanced as opposed to the old and decadent East Coast and the rabidly conservative desert states to say nothing of the mid-westerners most of whom live their lives out in quiet desperation.

Rule of thumb is that California has traditionally led the nation by five years in social structure and reform - here in Arizona it may take a bit longer....

Calif. lawmakers promise health reform this year
By Lisa Baertlein Sat Aug 11

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California lawmakers on Saturday promised to send a health care reform bill to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this year, even as the $145 billion state budget has stalled and the legislative session winds down.

Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and Assembly Republican Leader Michael Villines made their vows to hundreds of people attending an eight-city, satellite-linked meeting focused on covering the state's 6.5 million uninsured.

Schwarzenegger, a former action film star, has made health care for all Californians a priority and has been publicly battering fellow Republicans in the state Senate, whom he also blames for the six-week budget delay.

Speaking at the same forum, Schwarzenegger told the Los Angeles audience that Senate Republicans "are holding up the budget so they don't have to deal with health care."

Nunez, who like Perata and others have proposed their own fixes for the state's burdened health care system, said lawmakers will get the job done.

"In the absence of real action on the part of the federal government and Congress ... we in California are going to deliver," he said.

But time is running out. California lawmakers do not expect movement on a spending plan until the state Assembly returns from vacation on August 20. They have until September 14 to pass a health reform bill this calendar year.