Yesterday, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a health insurance bill that would have protected consumers from having their policies canceled.
Under the now dead bill, health insurance companies would have not been allowed to cancel coverage if a policyholder made expensive claims without an independent review.
The independent review process would allow insurers to cancel policies only if they could prove that customer intentionally lied about their health on their application, reported the Associated Press and the San Diego Union-Tribune.
So why would Governor Schwarzenegger veto a seemingly sound consumer protections bill?
According the AP article, the governor struck down the legislation because it didn’t contain six provisions that he wanted included. The article also cited Schwarzenegger as saying, “[The bill was] written by the attorneys that stand to benefit from its provisions. ”
But one California lawmaker pointed out some of the governor’s provisions were already attached to other bills.
Critics also accuse Schwarzenegger of flip-flopping on his health insurance initiatives with this veto.
“The governor’s veto betrays the promise he repeatedly made to Californians to protect them from insurance companies canceling their health insurance when they need it most, ” said president of the California Medical Association, Dr. Richard Frankenstein.
Something smells funny with this veto…