On June 13, Arnold Schwarzenegger made the dreaded announcement that he was calling for a special election this November 8 to address financial emergencies in California. According to Secretary of State Bruce McPherson, a special election could cost California up to $80 million: a hefty price tag for a state, once the world’s fifth largest economy, which has recently been hemorrhaging money. In justifying his decision, however, Schwarzenegger employed a poorly chosen metaphor: ”¦how can we just stand around while our debt grows each year by billions of dollars? If you break your arm, you don’t wait until your next physical. You get it fixed now.’

For Schwarzenegger, a wealthy movie star from a European country, such reasoning is common sense. But ‘common sense’ logic such as ‘if you are unwell, you seek medical attention’ is less black-and-white for the millions of Californians living without the security of health insurance. As many as 6.7 million of Schwarzenegger’s constituents go without health insurance during any given point in the year, according to Andrew McGuire, Executive Director of Health Care For All California. Furthermore, a 1997 study released by the University of California at Berkeley reported that Californians are less likely than other Americans to be uninsured: 22%, as compared to 18% nationally.

Schwarzenegger’s argument, however simple, is true: when one’s arm is broken, that does require immediate medical attention regardless of financial situations. What he declined to include in his metaphor was how resulting medical bills can entrench the uninsured in a vicious cycle of debt and poverty. Prohibitive costs also mean that an inability to seek preventative care will lead to the inevitability of necessary emergency care. No one demonstrated this more aptly than filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, when he sustained a work-related arm injury while filming a segment for his new television series. The premiere episode of ’30 days’ focused on Spurlock and fiancée Alex Jamieson as they attempted to survive on minimum wage in America for thirty days. Spurlock’s bill for his uninsured Emergency Room visit came to more than $700 dollars, and included a $500 fee simply for requiring ER services and a $40 fee for an Ace bandage (which retails online for $1.35). An ER visit by Jamieson to treat a urinary tract infection came to over $400, not including prescription antibiotics. In what can only be described as supremely serendipitous timing, this episode premiered to American television audiences only two days after Schwarzenegger’s announcement.

Those lucky enough to have health insurance, however, can also be blindsided by medical costs. A study released by Harvard University in 2004 concluded that nearly half of all personal bankruptcies in the United States are a direct result of excessive medical fees. Of those medical bankruptcies, nearly 75% involved people with health insurance. This means that nearly 37% of all personal bankruptcies in the United States are individuals and families with health insurance who are *still* unable to cope with medical bills in cases of unexpected illness. Most of these bankruptcies arise when unexpected and severe ailments reveal the fine print of various insurance plans: some costs may only be partially covered, while others may not be covered at all.

Sometimes, just having health insurance in California is cause for bankruptcy, even without illness. My own family, covered by health insurance giant Kaiser Permanente, has seen a 258% increase in insurance fees in just seven years. When my father, a thirty-three-year veteran firefighter in the San Francisco Bay Area, retired in 1999, the monthly payment for health insurance under Kaiser was $440 a month. That included him, my mother, and me. Today, my age makes me ineligible for coverage under my father’s insurance. However, that has not stopped Kaiser from raising my parents’ monthly fee to $700. Furthermore, my parents have received notice that their fee will increase a further 8% by next year. They pay the same amount for * possibly* needing medical attention that Morgan Spurlock did when he emphatically did need medical attention.

In Schwarzenegger’s California, the patients are only one side of a multifaceted health care drama. Nurses, too, have been battling the characteristically tactless politician since last year, when he pushed ahead new nurse-to-patient ratios in California, first signed into law by his predecessor Gray Davis. Ignoring a nationwide nursing shortage which some have called a crisis, fulfilling the new ratios would require 4,000 additional nursing hires in California, where 14,000 nurse vacancies already exist. Schwarzenegger took the disagreement to a new level in December 2004, when he insulted a group of nurses who showed up at a charity dinner to protest the unrealistic ratios: ‘Pay no attention,’ he told his audience. ”¦they are the special interests. Special interests don’t like me in Sacramento because I kick their butt.’ The venue where all this butt-kicking was taking place? The annual Governor’s Conference on Women and Families.

Schwarzenegger’s metaphor of seeking help for a broken arm is unfortunate, but not entirely inaccurate. For Californians, a special election and unexpected medical emergencies are both costly roadblocks which may solve an immediate need, but will ultimately be the root of sustained financial duress and a downward spiral of loss. Schwarzenegger’s ironic metaphor is merely the latest in a string of too-true blurts which may secure the actor-turned-politician a reputation as being honest, if not subtle. His bumbling attempts to issue action-film one-liners to create a memorable political persona lost their novelty long ago, and have instead shown profound disrespect not only for the office of governor, but more importantly, for the people who he has promised to serve. Perhaps Schwarzenegger has simply spent too long ‘kicking butts’ in Hollywood to make a successful transition to respecting the true needs of everyday Californians in Sacramento.

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