Go back to Election '94 pageSAN FRANCISCO -- Californians rejected Canadian-style health reform in this state, echoing national fears of higher taxes and government intrusion in the examining room.
Voters broadly defeated Proposition 186, the California Health Security Act, which would have created government-run health insurance for all, paid for through taxes. Early Wednesday, returns showed the initiative crashing to defeat by a 2-to-1 margin, just months after President Clinton's more moderate health reform plan failed.
"It's clear that voters don't trust their family health care to state government. They don't believe the government will spend their health dollars more efficiently than they are spent now," said Richard Wiebe, spokesman for the No on 186 campaign, which was financed largely by the health insurance industry.
Supporters, a coalition of unions, health workers and consumer groups, called their failed initiative "a great step forward" even in defeat. "Regardless of the total vote count, millions of Californians still voted for a single payer health system because it provides universal coverage and gives us all security," said Dr. Krista Farey, co-author of the initiative. "We've built a tremendous base of support for whatever reform we attempt next."
The initiative would have collected a 2.5 percent state income tax from inidividuals and a payroll tax of between 4.4 percent and 8.9 percent from businesses in order to pay the medical bills of all Californians. The state system would have cost about $101 billion a year. With the money, the state would have paid all doctors and hospitals set fees for services, eliminating private health insurance in this state.
Supporters predicted the new system would save $11 billion a year in insurance administrative costs alone, enough to cover the estimated six million Californians who today have no health insurance. But opponents and most politicians in the state said the measure was financially unsound. One independent study by the Washington D.C. consulting firm KPPG Peat Marwick estimated the new health system would bleed $72 billion in debt within five years unless it raised more taxes, cut benefits or increased the co-payments that patients pay. Both Gov. Pete Wilson and challenger Kathleen Brown opposed Prop. 186.
But in the end, it was probably voters' worries about the economy and the sanctity of their relationship with their doctors that defeated the initiative so soundly. Opponents spent $9.4 million hammering two key messages: the new taxes could cost jobs, and the state would be telling doctors what to do, at what price. Supporters spent $2.8 million trying to convince voters that government-run health insurance would actually protect them from insurance companies who now call the shots over their care.
In an election that saw a conservative swell nationwide, voters put their trust in the private market instead of the government.
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