To the consternation of small business and medical insurers alike, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has announced sweeping reform in health care coverage with a proposal of universal health care for all Californians. Currently, 6.5 million residents who live in the state are without the security and safety of medical health care coverage.

Schwarzenegger, who is now being accused of sounding more Democrat than Republican, suggests his new $12 billion dollar health care plan be paid with fees levied on businesses, insurers, doctors and hospitals, and that 85 percent of every insurance premium dollar be spent on the insured in patient care. Insurers would be required to make all-things-equal in offering health insurance based on a community-rating model, as opposed to charging higher premiums for those who fall into a high-risk category. In addition, insurance companies would not be able to deny coverage. All persons who apply for health insurance would be guaranteed coverage.

Employers would be required to provide health insurance to all workers or pay 4 percent of their payrolls to the state; doctors would pay a new tax of 2 percent; and hospitals would pay a new tax of 4 percent.

The number of medically-uninsured in this country is growing yearly, and it is an issue that cannot be ignored. Those without medical insurance postpone seeing a physician, and when we are talking about cancer, delayed diagnosis and treatment can often mean the difference between life and death.

Recent surveys have indicated that even the insured are beginning to wonder if they will be able to afford quality health care in the future, as the cost of care continues to rise. It is not lost on politicians that health care is an important issue with the voters of this country, and those who wish to garner more votes will tackle these concerns.

In fairness, I am not suggesting politicians are solely motivated to act based on popular vote, but elections do have a way of clarifying the issues that are important to the citizens of this country and the resulting changes that can occur as a result of defined focus.

Schwarzenegger is not alone in his efforts to affect change. In December, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden introduced a new proposal to provide affordable, high quality, private health coverage for everyone regardless of where they work or live with the Healthy Americans Act.

The current system is simply not working for nearly 46.6 million people who are without health insurance coverage, according to statistics provided by U.S. Census Bureau's Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division. The solution will not be an easy one, but a solution is needed. Schwarzenegger has made a bold move, but one that will be made by other political leaders in this country as we lead up to the 2008 presidential elections. For the every day citizen, the time is overdue for the realignment of a health care system that is teetering out-of-balance and in a seriously off-kilter orbit.

Related posts:

Uninsured: the hard wind batters the brittle tree
Cancer survivors not getting medical attention or medications
Two paychecks away and cancer into the abyss
Healthy Americans Act: health insurance for every citizen

The Jimmy Fund upped it's total by $2.8 million this Saturday -- thanks to celebrities Donald Trump, Ben Affleck, Billy Ray Cyrus, Jon Cryer, and others who helped raise funds for this cancer-fighting charity through a Boston radio-telethon. Established in 1948 to support cancer research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, The Jimmy Fund has been the primary charity for the Boston Red Sox since 1953 and has been the beneficiary of this same radio-telethon for five years now. Since 2002, the telethon has raised more than $5 million to support research and care for both children and adults. This year's goal was to raise $2.6 million. With generous donations, the goal was reached -- and exceeded.

Trump -- who threw out the first pitch at the Red Sox-Yankees doubleheader on Saturday -- donated $60,000 to the charity. His donation jumped this year's total ahead of last year's $2.3 million. Red Sox owner John Henry donated $30,000, and Yankees owner George Steinbrenner gave $10,000. Massachusetts Senators Edward Kennedy and John Kerry also sent in donations during the 18-hour fundraiser that aims to strike out cancer.

In a feature published in the Sydney Morning Herald, Julietta Jameson asks the same question many of us have asked -- Is the compassionate celebrity the new public pest? If you are talking about Paris Hilton's insatiable self-promotion in grabbing one more photo-op by making a shallow meaningless promise to a charity for kids with cancer, the answer is a resounding yes. If you are talking about U2's Bono, who regularly meets with world leaders and often knows far more about the subject under discussion than the politicians do, then the answer is an emphatic no.

Then there are all the celebrities who fall between the extremes of Hilton and Bono, who lend their name and some of their time, for noble reasons and then too for the less-admirable ambition of keeping themselves in the news, to causes that need attention for the fundraising needed to keep the charity or cause going.