ABX1 1 (Núñez) ? The Health Care Security and Cost Reduction Act ? failed in the Senate Health Committee earlier today with only 1 AYE vote, 7 NOES and 3 ABSTENTIONS.

California Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez declined to accept reconsideration of his bill by the Senate Health Committee, essentially killing this bill for the year.

The hearing was tense, with Speaker Núñez posing a challenge to the Committee members to come up with their own health care reform proposal that could ensure medical coverage for millions of uninsured Californians, provide a means of funding the extraordinary costs of expanding coverage, and still attract the support of Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and a majority of the Democrat-controlled Legislature.

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