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11/09/05
Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --
Governor Schwarzenegger suffered a major blow. Now can everyone in Sacramento just get along?
Arnold Schwarzenegger>> "I recognize that we also need more bipartisan cooperation to make it all happen and I promise I will deliver that. I'm going to make it work. We're going to make this state the greatest state of this greatest country in the world again."
Val Zavala>> And then, he wrote some of the most memorable sci-fi stories of all time. We talk with the master of horror, Richard Matheson.
These stories and more next on tonight's Life and Times.
Announcer>> Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education.
And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.
With additional support for Life and Times from The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation.
Val Zavala>> I'm here at the Beverly Hilton Hotel where Governor Schwarzenegger is throwing an election night party. He was hoping it would be a victory party, but it hasn't turned out that way.
[Film Clip]
Val Zavala>> Despite the applause, the governor had to face the music. As word of the defeat of all four of his reform initiatives came in, his tone quickly became conciliatory.
Arnold Schwarzenegger>> "We're going to go and find common ground. We are going to talk about reforms of how to move our state forward. We're going to ask to make sure that we're going to bring new ideas to the table, big ideas, radical ideas."
Val Zavala>> We'll have more from the governor and thoughts from former governor, Gray Davis, later in the show. But first, this report from David Okarski.
David Okarski>> The cost of health care is rising. The cost of health insurance is crushing. The number of working people without health insurance is going up and, if you don't have health insurance and have to go to a hospital, you might be amazed at the size of your bill. Silvino Arcigal works as a gardener. He's been doing this for thirty-five years and, like one in five Californians, he has no health insurance.
Silvino Arcigal>> Yeah, if I could afford it, I sure would like to get it especially, you know, for my wife. It is my concern, you know, if something happens.
David Okarski>> He's always paid for his family's health care out of pocket. That's what he figured he'd do after he fell from a ladder this summer and fractured his wrist and two ribs. His son took him to the emergency room at California Hospital Medical Center. They took two x-rays, gave him two shots of pain killers, a prescription for Tylenol and a splint and sent him to another hospital for treatment.
Silvino Arcigal>> I got a bill for $2,800.
David Okarski>> Add the three hundred dollar deposit and Arcigal's two x-rays, two shots and splint cost more than three thousand dollars.
Silvino Arcigal>> I don't mind paying that, but reasonable. You know, what is reasonable. This is too much.
David Okarski>> Then Arcigal heard about Consejo De Latinos Unidos, the Council of United Latinos, and met with Kevin K.B. Forbes.
K.B. Forbes>> I'll be frank. Hospitals are equal opportunity price gougers.
David Okarski>> Forbes was a spokesman for the presidential bids of Pat Buchanan and Steve Forbes -- no relation. His mother is from Chile, he speaks fluent Spanish, and he decided five years ago to give something back to the Latino community. When someone asked for help dealing with a very high hospital bill, he got his first lesson in health care economics.
K.B. Forbes>> Hospitals in Southern California were charging the uninsured on average almost five times more than what they would accept as payment in full from an insurance company.
David Okarski>> He founded Consejo to help people like Silvino Arcigal and to persuade hospitals to lower their prices.
K.B. Forbes>> Latinos are more greatly impacted because they happen to be a disproportionate share of the uninsured.
David Okarski>> But Forbes says hospital over-pricing affects everyone and calls this the number one problem in American health care.
K.B. Forbes>> They are the culprits. I mean, there is a crime going on and the blunt instrument is the hospitals.
Jim Lott>> You know, we've got escalating costs.
David Okarski>> Jim Lott is spokesman for an industry group, The Hospital Association of Southern California.
Jim Lott>> We also have an ever-increasing number of uninsured people in California.
David Okarski>> To uninsured people of all ethnicities and incomes, health care usually means the emergency room, but Lott says that only twenty to thirty percent of uninsured patients pay. That raises the cost for everyone else, but especially for uninsured people who do pay.
Jim Lott>> An insurance company is able to negotiate reduced rates from hospitals. They're able to contract because they have a briefcase full of patients that they can guarantee the hospital volume, and volume and patient load is what a hospital wants. They can negotiate discounts from the hospital's charges.
K.B. Forbes>> It's unfair to charge someone who doesn't have this little insurance card five hundred, six hundred or a thousand percent more.
David Okarski>> Several uninsured Latino families are suing Catholic Health Care West, which owns the hospital Arcigal went to. Forbes says that one woman was billed more than twenty thousand dollars for a two-day hospital stay. He says the same hospital would have billed a private insurer less than six thousand dollars and would have billed Medicare less than four thousand. He says it's not surprising that hospital bills cause more than half of America's personal bankruptcies.
Silvino Arcigal>> I'm still working, you know. I can reach out for a dollar, but people that live on a fixed income, you know, it's bad for them.
David Okarski>> Forbes is going after them the same way he went after Tenet Healthcare Systems which owns the USC Norris Cancer Hospital and others in California.
K.B. Forbes>> We took them on aggressively and, a year after taking them on, they raised the white flag and settled with us and offered a contract with the uninsured. We now praise Tenet Healthcare because, when you go to a Tenet facility, you're charged the same price as managed care companies.
David Okarski>> Forbes says Daughters of Charity, which owns St. Vincent's Hospital, is voluntarily following suit.
K.B. Forbes>> We had two great victories and we believe the uninsured here in Southern California have alternatives other than going to price-gouging hospitals like California Hospital Medical Center.
David Okarski>> In a written statement, the hospital's parent says it has provided more than six hundred million dollars in 2005 alone in charity care for the uninsured. In fact, Silvino Arcigal qualifies for California Hospital's charity discount, but he didn't know about the program and didn't ask.
Silvino Arcigal>> I don't know. When I come here, I would always take care of my family without asking anybody to help.
David Okarski>> In any case, he says, the staff at California Hospital never told him about the charity program. He learned about it from Forbes who says some hospitals are quiet about charity so they can try to collect the full price.
K.B. Forbes>> And I think that this problem of price-gouging could end tomorrow if all the hospitals across the board said we are going to charge Medicare plus ten percent or the managed care rate.
David Okarski>> Maryland made it the law.
Jim Lott>> What we're talking about is rate regulation.
David Okarski>> But when too many patients still can't pay, hospitals can lose money.
Jim Lott>> So we can't have rate regulation without extending insurance coverage for everybody.
David Okarski>> Health insurance for everyone has been a tough sell so far in this country, but as health care costs and prices rise, more people are taking a closer look.
Jim Lott>> In every other country, the basic health care coverage is all taxpayer-based or government sponsored. It's not employer sponsored.
David Okarski>> And Americans pay for employer sponsored insurance in ways we may never notice. For example, General Motors says fifteen hundred dollars of the sticker price on every new car pays for health insurance. State Senator Sheila Kuehl of Santa Monica has offered a bill that would make the state California's only health insurer and California would insure everyone.
Senator Sheila Kuehl>> If everyone had health insurance, you'd get preventive care, you'd get primary care, and actually it saves a lot of money.
David Okarski>> Forbes calls universal health care a pie in the sky cop-out.
K.B. Forbes>> All that will come over time. The last time we had a serious discussion about health care coverage was eleven years ago. But we can change these practices tomorrow if the hospitals would simply say we're not going to price-gouge anymore.
David Okarski>> Hospitals are pushing a tobacco tax initiative next year. They hope it will keep beleaguered emergency rooms open until public support gathers for major reforms.
Jim Lott>> We believe that in 2007 or 2008, we're going to see a massive cry, a Herculean effort, to try and make that happen because more and more working people, more and more middle class people, are seeing their responsibility for the cost of their health care coverage go up.
David Okarski>> Forbes, meanwhile, is helping Silvino Arcigal and others like him fend off collection agencies trying to enforce payment of sky-high hospital bills and he's determined to bring hospital prices down to earth. David Okarski for Life and Times.
Announcer>> Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org and click on "Life and Times".
Val Zavala>> I'm here at the Beverly Hilton Hotel where Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is throwing an election night party. It was just two years ago that he was swept into office on a wave of popular support, but his agenda seems to have hit a wall, a wall built by organized labor.
The governor tried to put a good face on bad news, but there was no getting around the fact that all four of the measures he fought so hard for lost. After a bitter partisan fight, he called for cooperation.
Arnold Schwarzenegger>> "And I recognize that we also need more bipartisan cooperation to make it all happen and I promise you that I will deliver that."
Val Zavala>> At a nearby restaurant, the California Nurses Association was watching the returns come in. They were ecstatic that the governor's effort to rein in the power of public unions failed.
Rose Ann DeMoro>> He came in as this, you know, faux hero. These are the real heroes of California.
Val Zavala>> Although nurses, teachers and other public employees were claiming victory, they also called this special election a costly shame.
Rose Ann DeMoro>> Three hundred million dollars on this election wasted. They could have gone to Social Services. They could have gone to health care.
Val Zavala>> Getting Californians to do what you want them to do is no easy task and no one knows that better than the man who was ousted by Governor Schwarzenegger, former governor Gray Davis. Toni Guinyard talked to Davis to get his unique perspective on the election results.
Gray Davis>> It certainly was a bad day for Arnold. I mean, he called the special election, he put his ideas on the ballot and the people rejected them big time. But the good thing for Arnold and the good news for him is that people don't really resent it when you put initiatives on the ballot because they know they get to determine whether it becomes a law or not. So just because he got beaten last night doesn't mean he's doomed for 2006.
I'm not trying to put a pretty picture on this. This was a disaster. He got shelled, but he can pick himself up, brush himself off and go back to the style he used in year one which was bipartisan, people working together, Democrats and Republicans. That's what the people like and that's what they hoped he would do when he was elected in 2003. So the choice is his. He can continue on a partisan track which I think may well spell defeat for him in 2006 or he can return to a bipartisan track, solve problems, work with Democrats and he has even money to be re-elected.
Toni Guinyard>> But is it realistic to have the expectation that that rift can be healed at this point?
Gray Davis>> It's not easy. I mean, this was a huge battle. It was like a lunar eclipse. It blacked out all the important discussions. We didn't talk about traffic. We didn't talk about our schools getting better. We didn't talk about health care for our children. It was all about the governor's reforms, what they would look like, would they pass.
We lost a whole year, plus created a lot of enmity and a lot of polarization. The governor lost thirty points in the polls from about sixty-five to at least to the high thirties, almost thirty points. So he paid a heavy price, but I think people still want to like him. If he pursues a bipartisan path in the future, he's still even money, I think, to get re-elected.
Toni Guinyard>> At any point during the night, did you think, "Told you so"?
Gray Davis>> Well, I thought for a long time that these initiatives didn't warrant a special election. The only one that was urgent enough to warrant a special election was his budget initiative, the "Live within your means", and that just got shellacked. That lost almost two to one.
I think that lost because people realized the biggest loser would be education. They didn't trust Arnold in education. They don't know the specifics, but they know somehow education got short-changed last year. He didn't repay back the money he said he would and they didn't trust him to make the decisions all by himself which was what 76 would have allowed. So that was the cornerstone of his reform movement and that got rejected huge time.
Toni Guinyard>> Let's go down the list of the propositions that Governor Schwarzenegger supported. First of all, Proposition 74.
Gray Davis>> I can't tell you when teachers should get tenure, but I can tell you this. At best, 74 solved the wrong problem. We don't have too many young teachers hanging on. We don't have enough young teachers hanging on. In fact, sixty percent of all teachers after three years quit because the job is too hard and it's too emotionally demanding. They're dealing with students who don't understand English, they have learning difficulties and they say, "I've had it."
Arnold would have you believe that we have too many young teachers hanging on that are not qualified. Just the opposite. We don't have enough young teachers hanging on saying we want to make teaching our career. So at best, we solve the problem that is tangential to how well your students do in school.
Toni Guinyard>> Proposition 75. That's dealing with the union dues.
Gray Davis>> Well, they can opt out now. A United States Supreme Court decision said that nobody can be forced to make political contributions if they don't want to. About eighteen percent of the union members don't pay dues into political accounts. They also elect their business manager once every year or every two years, much as we elect public officials. If they don't like what their business manager is doing, they can run him out of office, so there's some checks in place.
Do we need to do more? You know, I can't really say yes or no. But if we do more, it should be balanced. We should do the same thing for corporations as we do for unions. You want permission for unions to give annually. Get permission from the shareholders annually for corporations to give. Then it's bipartisan. It doesn't appear to be rigging the political map towards one party and against another. It seems fair to both sides. That, I think, would pass.
Toni Guinyard>> Proposition 76?
Gray Davis>> I had talked myself about some form of spending restraint. I am convinced, having been governor for five years, that Republicans will reduce taxes if there's any money in the coffers and Democrats will start new programs. It's important to say we only have so much money and we have to live within our means. In good years, we need to put some money aside because we know bad years will come at some point down the road and the money that we put in reserve can help out then.
There's just not the discipline to do that. Governor Wilson will tell you that and my predecessors, Governor Duekmejian and Governor Brown, will tell you that. So, yes, but the way to do it is to negotiate out a compromise with the legislature. Put it on the ballot so that everybody favors it because last night was basically a real showdown when the governor said this is the way I want to control spending and he lost two to one.
Toni Guinyard>> And do we really need to go back and look at the issue of redistricting when it comes to reform?
Gray Davis>> I believe so. I really believe the concept of the governor's initiative was a good one, that someone other than the legislature should draw the lines, that judges, retired judges, some bipartisan group that generally reflects the population should do it so that the people drawing the lines are not the ones immediately affected by how they draw the lines.
But the problem is, mid-term elections, mid-term reapportionments don't work because they depend on a census data that would have been six years old. In Riverside County alone, five hundred thousand people have moved in since the last census. They don't get counted in this new map drawn. So if the governor had said I want to change the way we reapportion and the next time we'll vote for reapportionment in the next decade and it will be done by judges or retired judges, I would have been out front campaigning for it.
Toni Guinyard>> If Governor Schwarzenegger was sitting in front of you right now and you could offer some advice, what would that advice be?
Gray Davis>> I would say, "Arnold, the people want to like you. They're willing to forgive this debacle we call the year of the reform. Just do a mia culpa and then genuinely reach out to Democrats, Independents and Republicans and develop a consensus agenda that everyone can get behind so you have a record of achievement when you go before the voters in November of 2006. You don't need me to help you. You have all the communication skills in the world. But if you're going to cast yourself like you did last year as a partisan figure, you're going to have a tough time getting re-elected. Cast yourself as a bipartisan figure as you did in your first year of office and you're at least even money to win."
The governor is a great communicator. If I had his communication skills, I'd still be in Sacramento. But this is not a movie. This is real life.
Toni Guinyard>> Governor Davis, thank you so much for spending time with Life and Times.
Gray Davis>> Thank you, Toni. Good to see you.
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Val Zavala>> The man you're about to meet is an expert at sending shivers up your spine. He even scares Stephen King. He is Richard Matheson and he has a legendary career in science fiction and horror. He's also written some of the most memorable episodes of the "Twilight Zone" and now, as he approaches eighty, he's come out with a new book. Saul Gonzalez took the opportunity to talk with Matheson about his remarkable career.
Saul Gonzalez>> Richard Matheson, thanks for joining us on Life and Times.
Richard Matheson>> Thank you.
Saul Gonzalez>> You've had a writing career now for well over fifty years, right? And much of it has dealt with -- you've written tales of the fantastic --
Richard Matheson>> -- sixty years.
Saul Gonzalez>> Sixty years. Science fiction stories, horror stories, fantasies. What is it that attracts you to these genres?
Richard Matheson>> Nothing attracts me to any one genre. I think genres are a pain in the neck. I don't really believe in them. I believe in telling stories in total realism into which you drop something that's offbeat.
Saul Gonzalez>> I read that you believe that the most frightening stories are the stories that are told in a very realistic environment where you just add a smidgeon of fantasy or a touch of terror. Is that right?
Richard Matheson>> Yes, that's why I think one of the best scare pictures ever made -- I don't know if that's the proper word for it -- is "Rosemary's Baby" which is so realistic and just gradually increases. It's fright factor.
Saul Gonzalez>> As a writer, what's been the joy of fright, of writing frightening stories?
Richard Matheson>> I don't know. I don't do it on purpose. You got me. I don't know why.
Saul Gonzalez>> So you think you're a pretty amiable guy?
Richard Matheson>> (Laughter) Yeah, yeah, I am. I don't know. There's these ideas that occur to me and, if they strike me as good ideas, I'll write it.
Saul Gonzalez>> Think about what so many people know you from and that's your work on the "Twilight Zone".
[Film Clip]
Saul Gonzalez>> Generally speaking, what kind of experience was that like? Writing for that show at that time and working with Rod Serling?
Richard Matheson>> Well, it was very enjoyable. We had no idea, of course, that it was going to last a thousand years.
Saul Gonzalez>> That it was going to become such an icon.
Richard Matheson>> Yeah. Charles Beaumont and I were the two who were brought in and tried and what we were doing was exactly what Rod was looking for and we were able to adapt our stories to the "Twilight Zone" the way Rod would tell a story.
Saul Gonzalez>> And you joined a really special circle, really, a circle of just three men. There was yourself, another writer, Charles Beaumont, and Rod Serling being all of the writers, right?
Richard Matheson>> When Rod won his Emmy, he said on television, "Come on over, boys. We'll slice it up like a turkey."
Saul Gonzalez>> And what did Mr. Serling expect of you? Why did he pick you out of the legions of writers out there?
Richard Matheson>> Well, because I wrote the kind of stories he enjoyed and they were always very realistic.
Saul Gonzalez>> And I would imagine, being a writer, that working on the "Twilight Zone" was especially a joy because he so respected the skill of a writer.
Richard Matheson>> Yes. He did respect us and I have no recollection of one word being changed. Sometimes they would, after I would hand in the first draft, we would make a few passes at it and then I rewrote it and that was it.
Saul Gonzalez>> Let's talk about one other show, really an iconic episode of the "Twilight Zone". It's called "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" with William Shatner. Summarize the plot, first of all.
Richard Matheson>> Well, I was in an airplane and I looked outside and saw clouds and things like snow-covered mountains and I thought, "What if I saw a guy skiing out there?" That was a clever and interesting idea, but not "Twilight Zone" scary, so I had to change it. But interesting enough, when they had this program on television, "The History of CBS", they naturally included "Twilight Zone" and that was the one they showed footage from.
[Film Clip]
Saul Gonzalez>> Do you generally have a tale mapped out in your own head before you sit down to put it on paper?
Richard Matheson>> When I was in college, I got in the habit of using file cards and I continued doing that. I would write ideas, plot ideas, some dialog, some concepts, nothing in proper order, so I had a big pile of cards. Then I would start putting them up on a corkboard trying to put them in the order I would want to use them.
Saul Gonzalez>> How many stories do you think you still have in your head now?
Richard Matheson>> Oh, an infinite number. I used to tell people that I have enough for three lifetimes. That was for that time. But now, I'm not interested in it. The ideas are still there and maybe they'd be saleable, but I don't find them interesting.
Saul Gonzalez>> I know you reject the genre label. You said that when you first started talking. But when you look out and you survey young writers like tales of the supernatural or fantasy or science fiction, are you pleased by what you see and by what you read?
Richard Matheson>> I don't read that much and I certainly don't see any of the movies that are made. Once in a while, a good one will show up and I'll watch that, but I don't have any overwhelming interest.
Saul Gonzalez>> You're not a consumer of this literature anymore?
Richard Matheson>> No. Some of my older friends my age are still writing stuff, but they have more trouble now.
Saul Gonzalez>> Mr. Matheson, I just want to thank you for more than fifty years of words and stories and tales, tales that have scared the heck out of me certainly when I've read them.
Richard Matheson>> You're welcome.
Saul Gonzalez>> And thank you for sitting here and talking with me.
Richard Matheson>> It's been my pleasure.
Val Zavala>> Richard Matheson's latest book is called "Woman", a sci-fi version of the battle between the sexes. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.
Announcer>> Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education.
And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.
With additional support for Life and Times from The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation.
Sponsored in part by:
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