SACRAMENTO /California Newswire/ — Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger issued the following statement on Dec. 24th, urging continued work on health care reform legislation that won’t burden states with unfair costs: “I have long supported fixing our broken health care system with comprehensive reform. But, I still believe both the House and Senate bills fall short and need additional work. Congress must ensure states are not strapped with unfunded mandates and unfair costs that will only lead to larger budget deficits with unsustainable services.”
He continued, “I remain committed to working with Congress and the President as the two houses move forward on reforms that are balanced and focus on slowing the growth in health care costs, improving the quality of care and providing health insurance coverage for the uninsured, while ensuring states can sustain the expansion of programs like Medicaid. This is a historic opportunity and I urge members of Congress and the Obama administration to come together and work through these issues to fix our broken system.â€
On Tuesday, the Governor sent House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the California Congressional Delegation a letter urging them to not impose new costs on states through unfunded federal mandates and stressing that health care reform will only succeed if Congress gives states, like California, the flexibility to meet current obligations within the revenues available to states.