CARE BILLS BLOCKED IN CALIFORNIA

SACRAMENTO, Calif.-In a veto message delivered to the California Assembly last week, Gov. Pete Wilson told lawmakers he would veto all but one of the bills that would regulate managed care.

Gov. Wilson said he will wait to decide on nearly all managed care bills until after the Managed Health Care Improvement Task Force issues a report in January. Formed last year, the task force will "provide comprehensive and coherent recommendations and policy guidance on the key, overarching policy questions raised by managed care" when it issues its report, he said.

Until then, "the prudent course of action for the Legislature would be to take a five-month hiatus from uncoordinated, reactive, piecemeal decisions on literally dozens of bills," he said.

The governor said the only bill he will sign is a measure that would mandate maternity inpatient coverage of 48 hours after a normal vaginal delivery and 96 hours after a Caesarean section to comply with the recently enacted federal law.

The governor's admonition was contained in a letter vetoing a bill that would have permitted women to obtain specialist obstetric and/or gynecological care without referrals from their primary care physicians.

In California, legislation that passes becomes law if the governor chooses not to sign or veto it.