The West Coast Experiment: Phase 2. Clinical Trials.

The west coast has long been a bastion of novel thinking and maverick politics. We can trace it back to the 19th century, and the very iconography of the American West: the untapped frontier, and the John-Wayne-like ranchers. Something about the Pacific side of the country has since been imbued with this sense of a new horizons and new beginnings. As the decades have moved by, that experimental identity by no means has been lost - be it the counter culture heritage of Timothy Leary and Haight-Ashbury or the 'granola-crunching-activist.’ Perhaps this identity isn’t an easy one to measure, but consider the fact that the hit IFC show Portlandia has mined and lampooned this very attitude for six seasons going seven – it’s pretty well established.

But this west coast mindset is more than a style of living, but an experimental political force challenging the very precedents and attitudes set forth by our congress. Four years ago Washington State and Colorado initiatives were passed for the cultivation and sale of a marijuana, laws which amazingly stood in staunch opposition the obstinate Controlled Substance Act that has ruled our nation’s drug policy for more than 40 years.

 Before you tune out, this article isn’t about legalization (thought the marijuana experiment inWashington and Colorado has produced a very encouraged new sector of theirstate economies), but a look into the newest development in the West Coast’s direct challenge to our national government.

In a bold move, California officials have begun making arrangements to lobby a new state law that I contend will shake up our national discourse much more than the already controversial legalization legislation. California officials are attempting to rollout insurance for undocumented immigrants. This move directly undermines resistance to the Affordable Care Act, and opens up a new discussion into the increasingly polarizing immigration discussion.

Contrary to many national voices to scale back health care and build up the Mexican-American wall, Californian legislature is doing just the opposite: working to scale up health care, and scale back the wall (at least the metaphorical one that that grows with each Trump rally).

(Image Source: New York Times).

Officials say that up to 30 percent of the state’s two million undocumented adults could be eligible for the program, and that roughly 17,000 people are expected to participate in the first year, if the plan is approved. But the proposal faces serious hurdles in Washington, where it must be approved by the Treasury and the Health and Human Services Departments.

And if we look at the figures, it’s astonishing we haven’t already done more. Even though insurance among non-citizens has increased by 6.3% between 2013 and 2014 as part of the Affordable Care Act, this group still remains disproportionately uninsured. Specifically within the undocumented citizens, a vast majority of individuals live without any health insurance. Which raises two questions, how we treat our immigrant population, and how we pay for it.

The solution proposed is this:

Advocates of California’s initiative argue that the plan should be approved under what is known as an “innovation waiver,” which allows states to have provisions of the federal law modified, because no federal dollars will be used to fund the program.

“This really represents the next step in health for all,” said State Senator Ricardo Lara, We’re simply asking Washington to allow California to once again allow more people to pay into the system.”

Ultimately this no-cost plan is one that raises more ethical questions than financial. Can we continue to treat our immigrants as if they don’t exist, ignoring them many basic liberties provided by the constitution? And can we continue to ignore the plight of the poor and uninsured, whose lives tragically run parallel to the marginalized undocumented immigrants.

The importance of this new legislative push is not the legal one, but the symbolic one. California has challenged our national precedent of ignoring the poor, sick, and immigrant both in its legal code and its attitude. By no means is this the solution, or any one-size-fits-all piece of legislation for that matter, but rather a national discourse. And this piece of legislation is the voice bringing light to this paramount concern.

This marks the newest experiment in Pacific politics, and it’s not just marijuana this time.

West Coast Politics has entered stage 2: clinical trials.

Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/16/us/california-moves-to-allow-undocumented-immigrants-to-buy-insurance.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fus&action=click&contentCollection=us&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=5&pgtype=sectionfront

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/18/health/immigrants-the-poor-and-minorities-gain-sharply-under-health-act.html