Calif. voters reject Props. 45, 46, 48; pass 47
By Tracy Seipel and Jessica Calefati, San Jose Mercury News
California voters soundly rejected two hotly contested propositions Tuesday night — one that would have halted excessive health care insurance rates and another that would have raised the state’s 39-year-old cap on medical malpractice damage awards.
An Indian gaming proposal also failed.
But voters passed a measure that requires misdemeanor sentences rather than longer felony sentences for six crimes.
Proposition 45 would have given the state insurance commissioner the power to reject health insurance rate hikes for about six million Californians who buy their own policies or who work for small businesses. It had trailed badly all night, as had Proposition 46, which would have raised the state’s 39-year-old cap on medical malpractice damage awards, require doctors to take random drug tests and mandate use of a database designed to reduce prescription drug abuse.
“This was a battle worth fighting. But the battle doesn’t stop here,” Bob Pack, author of Proposition 46, said in a statement released late Tuesday night. He and his wife, Carmen, lost their two children Troy and Alana as a result of medical negligence.