While Americans might be pondering the effects of their overwhelming no-confidence vote in the 2006 midterm elections, Californians, at least, can be assured that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, in spite of his GOP association, means business, especially with regards to universal health care.

Schwarzenegger greeted state legislators on Monday, January 8th, with proposals demanding that health insurance be extended to all Californians. “I think this year, in Sacramento, we can make history,” said Schwarzenegger, just 96 hours after being sworn into his second term as governor the previous Friday. Coincidentally, the announcement also came only a few weeks after Schwarzenegger had his own run in with the state’s health care system when he broke his leg skiing in December. If his plan is accepted by the Democrat-led state legislature, insurers will be forced to eliminate prejudices regarding age or pre-existing health conditions. Accessibility to health insurance would also be guaranteed to the poor, as well as to those who fall above the Medicaid poverty line but still cannot afford private health insurance. Less popularly, however, immigrant adults and children would also be included under the plan.

This ambitious political undertaking reveals an existing statewide crisis that closely reflects that of the rest of the nation. Though the U.S. is the wealthiest nation in the world, it has one of the patchiest health insurance coverage policies in the Western Hemisphere. Of California’s population of 34 million, 6.5 million remain uninsured, a demographic proportion that is nearly identical to the 19% of total Americans who are also uninsured. When former President Bill Clinton tried to rectify the issue, a Republican dominated Congress deflected his efforts, and since then the issue has remained dormant. Even with the grip of the GOP lifted, California has chosen not to await progress on the federal level. Schwarzenegger wants California to be the fourth state after Massachusetts, Maine, and Vermont to implement a law that would ensure coverage of all of its citizens.

Consequently, and quite predictably, Gov. Schwarzenegger has evoked the cry of, “Et tu, Brute?” from his fellow Republicans in the legislature, who are already chafing under the GOP’s November loss to the Democrats. Currently, California’s state legislature holds Republicans in the minority, meaning that it is quite possible that the plan will be passed. One objection expressed by Republicans concerns the expenditure that the plan would require, which Schwarzenegger has estimated at $12 billion a year. “I think it’s just throwing a dart on the wall, it’s anybody’s guess what it would cost,” argues Robert Huff, Chairman of the State Assembly Republican Caucus.

Moreover, Republicans disapprove of the toll that such a measure would inflict upon small business owners, who would now have to insure all of their workers. Under the plan, medium-sized businesses are offered the choice to insure their workers, or pay four-percent of wages that are subject to Social Security tax into a fund that subsidizes health care for the uninsured. However, the fact that small business owners would feel the pinch the most under the plan is supported by the demographics of the uninsured within the state and throughout the nation. “If you look at where the uninsured lie,” said health policy analyst Laura Tobler to the New York Times, “most of them are working, and most of them work for small businesses.”

The California Medical Association, which consists of 34,000 California doctors, also objects to the expenditure, since it would require doctors and hospitals to slate 2 to 4 percent of their total revenues into a fund that would cover the poor. Though Gov. Schwarzenegger refers to the requirement as a fee, Dr. Anmol Singh Mahal, president of the association, refers to such payments as a “regressive tax.”

However, possibly the most galling aspect of this plan to both Republicans and a significant proportion of California’s Democratic population is the plan’s coverage of the state’s 1 million illegal immigrants. Though adult illegal immigrants would continue to be rejected by Medicaid, they would still be eligible for benefits from their counties and the state’s hospital system, even if they make as much as 300 percent of the poverty line. “Health coverage for illegal aliens is a non-starter for us,” claims Huff. “It creates a magnet for them coming here rather than staying there.” The topic of illegal immigrants is causing more and more of a strain within the American population and tolerance wanes as Americans watch both wages and job availability shrink as a result of their presence.

This issue should be a clear line in the sand. In spite of the fact that all persons should be treated equally, society’s utmost responsibility is to take care of its own citizens. However, the expansiveness of the California plan not only grants benefits to illegal aliens but also poses a serious financial burden to the state’s legal residents. As California’s legitimate population already poses an accommodation challenge under the plan as is, it is absurd to force tax-paying citizens to foot the bill so that the initiative’s benefits can be accessible to such a large sect of society which pays little to no taxes. Since illegal immigration is not just a trivial concern of xenophobia but a significant economic burden felt by many, the least that can be done is to make attempts to not append further policy incentives to such immigration activities.

The issue of illegal aliens aside, Massachusetts, which passed a law requiring all residents to be covered by health insurance last April, has proven that Schwarzenegger’s plan is neither unrealistic nor overly demanding. When the law officially goes into effect next year, 515,000 of Massachusetts’s 550,000 uninsured residents will be insured. Maine and Vermont have already passed similar laws. Still, California’s large population makes the execution of the state’s goals incomparably rigorous to those of its forerunners.

California’s size serves not only to call national attention to the problem of health care coverage in the US, but also makes it quite possible that the state could potentially become the birthplace of a federal undertaking to provide universal insurance. If this policy can be achieved in America’s largest state, the way is then paved for other states that do not share the same population burden. Its size also guarantees that the state will become the hotspot of political debate in the upcoming presidential elections.

Schwarzenegger’s proposal is a very desirable and long anticipated one, so long as it is economically sustainable. This may not be the case, however, if illegal immigrants are allowed a portion of the benefits that are not rightfully theirs.