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It's been all over the news - California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's year-long struggle to provide universal health insurance to all state citizens ended this week when his bill failed to pass the state senate.

Kaiser's Daily Health Policy Report goes on to say that the defeat of the $14.9 billion proposal to overhaul California's health care system "underscores a difficulty states face in achieving universal insurance coverage."

In order to buy his health insurance plan, Schwarzenegger had suggested more than $18 million in cuts to everything from parks to schools to Medicare. That, coupled with a fast growing state deficit in the billions, made it impossible for universal health care to find acceptance in California. It simply cost too much.

Paul Ginsburg, president of the not-for-profit Center for Studying Health System Change, said, "With the economy souring, it became clear that this was way beyond California's fiscal capacity to pull off." He added, "Some of the potential policies to address costs aren't really available to states." For example, only the federal government can make changes to taxes assessed on health insurance or to the way physicians are paid.

This goes to support the argument that health insurance should be controlled by the federal government, a debate that has seen a great deal of its own publicity as primary elections heat up.

In regards to California, Schwarzenegger refuses to concede defeat, instead promising that he will continue to work towards an overhaul of California's health care system. Hopefully, somewhere between his promises and those of presidential hopefuls, a solution will soon present itself.