Speaking at a Catholic hospital whose ability to care for the ill is threatened by legislators' inability to agree on a state budget, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger urged Californians Sept. 4 "to call the legislators to solve this budget problem once and for all --- to go and to meet in the middle."

"It is inexcusable now that we are two and a half months late with the budget and we still don't have any kind of a goal in sight that there will be a budget solved," said Schwarzenegger, speaking at a press conference outside Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank.

"The fact of the matter is, we've got to compromise on this," he continued. "Democrats and Republicans cannot get stuck in their ideological corners and just say, I'm a Republican and I want to be fiscally responsible, I'm a Democrat and I don't want to make any cuts. They have to come together and compromise to get this done. Not to do what is best for their party, not to do what is best for their ideology but what is best for the people of California, what's best for the hospitals, what's best for education, what's best for law enforcement and for all of those areas."

Medical, education and law enforcement officials also spoke at the event, citing the need for legislators to perform what L.A. Sheriff Lee Baca called "their fiduciary responsibility as partners. Partnership means that when we in law enforcement encounter a mentally ill person on the street --- and some of this funding is going to be cut if they don't pass this budget --- then the hospitals will eventually acquire that patient and then the hospitals are not going to be paid. And, as a result, the patient may not even get the proper treatment."

Barry Wolfman, chief executive officer of Providence St. Joseph Medical Center, said that health care in California "is really in critical condition, particularly with no state budget and it seems to be getting worse every day."

Providence St. Joseph has not been paid since July 24 when the Interim Payment Fund ran out, Wolfman said.

"We are jeopardizing care to the poor and vulnerable right now in our state by having physicians, hospitals and other providers not getting paid for the services that we provide," he asserted. "Statewide, currently, hospitals are owed more than $1 billion in delayed Medi-Cal payments because there is no state budget."

Wolfman further noted that "a real fear" exists that many hospitals will have to stop providing services to Medi-Cal and other providers. "Right now," he said, "there is a lot of discussion about hospitals not being able to keep their emergency rooms open and cutting other services in southern California. We all know that many hospitals have closed and many ERs and other hospitals are on the watch list. In passing a new budget we urge the state to maintain Medi-Cal funding to protect access for low-income Californians."

Dr. Raymond Schaerf, incoming chief of staff at Providence St. Joseph, said the budget impasse has seriously affected doctors and their ability to maintain office operations.

"We have physicians who can't freeze their rent, they can't freeze what they have to pay their employees, they can't freeze their insurances and they can't freeze their overhead," said Schaerf. "Some of us who do see Medi-Cal patients haven't received a check for over four months. This puts a tremendous strain on physicians."

Gov. Schwarzenegger has proposed a "compromise budget" that would cut $10 billion in spending, and has asked for budgetary "reform" that would produce a $12.5 billion "rainy day fund" that could be tapped for emergency situations.

L.A. County Supervisor Mike Antonovich spoke of the need for a two-year budget. "Many states have a two-year budget because that provides stability," he explained. "It provides stability to every hospital, every school, every city and county, because they can plan their budgets and move ahead and not be caught in this war, this chaotic war."