Gov Gets Another Chance to Veto Liability Bill

Like the swallows to Capistrano  — or perhaps fungal itch to the feet, depending on your point of view — the issue of third-party Medi-Cal liability returned yet again to the Capitol today.

Legislative Democrats, by the slimmest of vote margins, sent SB 93 to the governor this afternoon. The simple version of the bill by Sen. Ellen Corbett, D-San Leandro — and believe us, we struggled mightily to translate a simple version — is that if you hurt a Medi-Cal patient, you can be hit with damages beyond what Medi-Cal paid a doctor to treat that patient.

Sound familiar? It should. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed two similar bills in recent years. He also nixed the same Democrat-included provision from a trailer bill last month after Senate Republicans said they wouldn't provide the two votes needed to pass the state budget unless he did so.

Trial lawyers have pushed doggedly for this change in third-party liability. The insurance companies have pushed back equally hard and, so far, they've won every battle. So why would Democrats, who only needed majority votes to pass SB 93, send the issue back to the governor and his veto pen? Because, Democrats say, this provision was in the budget bill that the governor was prepared to sign and he only took it out to get Republican votes on the long-overdue spending plan.

It's hard to envision the governor signing SB 93. But if we had to come up with a reason for him doing just that it might be this: What better way to take a swipe at Republicans, who defied his repeated requests to approve the budget? Of course, by doing that, the governor would also be taking a swipe at the insurance industry, which has donated heavily to his campaigns. And that's really hard to envision.

—  Cheryl Miller