CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : CALIFORNIA : Health Insurance Ballot Plan Dies

Citing heavy opposition from a doctors group, a consumer health coalition has dropped its plan for a November, 1990, ballot initiative to provide health insurance for all Californians. The Health Access coalition scrapped the proposed business tax to fund a massive, state-run insurance plan after the California Medical Assn. proposed a rival initiative. Health Access director Maryann O’Sullivan said the cost of mounting a campaign against the medical association was prohibitive. “The CMA are heavy hitters,” she said. “Unfortunately, they’re not always operating in the interest of public health. They’re operating much more in the interest of protecting doctors’ salaries.” Denying that they killed the initiative, medical association officials said there was not much interest in the measure from any of the major interest groups.