State Treasurer Phil Angelides lashed out at HMOs, drug companies and Gov. Schwarzenegger as he brought his Democratic campaign for governor to the southern San Joaquin Valley on Wednesday.
Angelides greeted a friendly crowd of more than 50 supporters at the Visalia Senior Center, focusing on health care as "the issue that really defines what we stand for and who we stand with." Earlier Wednesday, Angelides addressed prescription drug costs in a talk at a Bakersfield community center.
"I don't have all the other answers, but when I'm sworn in I'll hit the ground running," he said in Visalia.
With one poll giving him a two-point edge over Schwarzenegger and another showing him trailing by eight points, Angelides went on the offensive, criticizing what he called Schwarzenegger's inaction on rising health-care and drug costs and the number of residents without insurance.
Angelides outlined a five-point health-care agenda that includes:
Expanding the state's Healthy Families program to provide insurance to all California children.
Pushing legislation requiring companies with 200 or more workers to provide health insurance for employees.
Regulating insurance companies and HMOs to limit administrative and executive costs and put that money into care.
Backing legislation to let seniors and families buy prescriptions over the Internet, including allowing drug imports from Canada.
Leveraging California's buying power to negotiate with drug companies for affordable prescription drugs.
"I will use the hammer of our presence in the market to tell these drug companies ... if you want to do business here, you will treat our people fairly," Angelides said.
Angelides also took aim at a provision of federal Medicare reform that he says bounced 1 million Californians, including 15,000 Tulare County senior citizens, from California's existing drug discount program.
Angelides was accompanied by his wife, Julie, and daughters Christina and Arianna on the tour that comes in the thick of a heat wave that is setting records and putting a strain on the state's electrical supply.
"What this heat wave has done is show us how fragile our electrical system is," Angelides said. "It's a sign of failure when seniors are worrying about whether their air conditioning is going to be on or companies have to send workers home and cut production."
Angelides said that in his first 100 days in office, he would develop a plan to strengthen the electrical grid and streamline regulations to speed construction of new power plants.
He also said he wants to appoint an energy "czar" to work on new power generation capacity and conservation efforts, and to boost the state's investment in power production if private companies won't.
Amanda Fulkerson, regional press secretary for Gov. Schwarzenegger, said Angelides' energy plan is not a new idea, or a workable one.
"As treasurer, Phil Angelides introduced his plan for energy, the now-defunct California Power Authority," Fulkerson said.
"The agency, which never built a single new unit, cost the state over $8 million without anything in return."
Fulkerson said Angelides' health-care and drug plans are also unrealistic.
"Angelides' employer health-care mandate would cost an extra $7 billion to enforce, and would chase business away from California," Fulkerson said.
Schwarzenegger, she said, had been open to supporting legislation that would allow Californians to obtain foreign prescription medications with some strict conditions: They would have to be completely safe and identical to what's available for purchase in this country.
Freida Trexler of Visalia was thrilled to find herself seated next to Angelides.
Trexler, like Angelides, is of Greek ancestry, and she wore a T-shirt with pictures of statues from the Acropolis for the occasion.
"I'm a strong Democrat, strong for unions and a strong Greek," said Trexler, 80. "I even called my relatives to tell them I was going to meet him."
Angelides' tour continues today with events in Fresno, Merced, Atwater, Modesto and Stockton, during which he will concentrate his message on air quality.
