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Supporters of Prop. 67 Launch Last-Minute Effort
By
Shannon Snow
November 1, 2004
Supporters of Proposition 67, which would levy a 3 percent tax
on phone service to fund emergency care, are spending $2 million
on advertisements to reach voters in the final week of the campaign.
Two ads, entitled "Save a life" and "Lose a Life," are
running in major media markets in California, including the Bay
Area, Sacramento and Los Angeles. "Save a life," which
features local fireman Mark Skeen, appeared in the final game
of the World Series and will run in other prime-time slots in
the days before the election.
The costly move by the Coalition to Preserve Emergency Care,
the association of health care professionals backing Proposition.
67, comes in the face of lagging political, public and financial
support for the measure.
Last week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his plans to
vote against Proposition 67, calling the initiative "bad
public policy for California."
According to the most recent poll, conducted by the Los Angeles
Times, 43 percent of potential voters would vote against the
measure, while 41 percent would vote in favor. The margin of
error was plus or minus 5 percent.
Numbers released October 12 by Field Poll, a nonpartisan public
opinion polling organization, found that 46 percent of potential
voters would vote against the measure, while 37 percent would
vote in favor. The sampling error was plus or minus 4.3
percent.
Lack of support caused the California Healthcare Association,
which helped put the measure on the ballot, to pull out of the
campaign last March after investing more than $2.4 million in
the effort.
Opposition to already high phone bills and taxes are the most
commonly cited reasons to oppose the measure, according to the
Field Poll study. The bill would cost the average telephone
customer 50 cents a month, although taxes are not capped for
cell phone users or businesses.
Stop The Phone Tax-No On 67, a coalition heavily funded by telecommunications
companies, recently spent $700,000 on an ad campaign reinforcing
these points.
Despite setbacks, proponents for the emergency room initiative
are not giving up hope.
In San Diego, supporters have gathered at hospitals and fire
stations to rally for the measure, which would raise approximately
$500 million, 95 percent of which would go directly to emergency
medical care.
On Tuesday, health care professionals pleaded their case to
the Senate Subcommittee on California's Emergency Medical Services
and the Assembly Select Committee on the Status of Health Facilities
in a hearing at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center in
Los Angeles. The facility, the second-busiest trauma center
in the area, may be closed if funding is not found. More
than 60 emergency rooms in California have closed in the
past decade.
"ERs are more than $900 million in the hole," said Peter
Warren of the California Medical Association in a telephone interview. "McDonald's
wouldn't work with that model."
Contact Shannon Snow at ssnow@stanford.edu
