Theaters in Sacramento on ‘single payer’ – Orange County Register

California’s Democratic Party officials took two steps this month to move the state toward a single-payer health care system, where government bureaucracies replace private plans to provide everyone’s medical needs. That would cause major disruption – and danger – in healthcare, but don’t worry. Their moves are just political theater.

The first action concerns Congressional Bill 1400 – introduced last year by Representative Ash Kalra, D-San Jose. According to the committee’s policy analysis, the law would establish “CalCare” to oversee “a single payer comprehensive health care coverage plan.” It was passed by the Congressional Health Committee last week with an 11-3 vote.

The second act was the introduction of Congress’s 11th Constitutional Amendment, which would introduce a statewide ballot measure that would require voters to double their tax burden to pay for the healthcare system. single-payer health care. A Tax Foundation report found that ACA 11 would raise taxes per household by a staggering $12,250 a year.

As Capitol observers note, the party’s vote on AB 1400 is symbolic because the measure has little chance of making it to the governor by this month’s deadline. Democrats want to continue advocating for single-payer health care because it’s a core need of progressive groups, but they’re not even about to pass a bill that lacks independent fiscal analysis or a the funding mechanism is not funny.

Of course, ACA 11 provides a way to pay for the new administration, but the chances of the Legislature passing and voters approving such an extraordinary tax increase are slim, even in happy California. tax benefits. Think back to it in the context of theatre. Lawmakers are pretending to create a funding mechanism for a mere symbolic bill.

However, Kalra criticized Republicans for asking for a cost analysis: “This bill has been around for almost a year; they could have asked for that a few months ago. “However, Kalra introduced the bill a year ago – and he never bothered to gather cost information for obvious reasons (it would provide loads of ammunition for opponents). Serious legislation starts with numbers Sure, Kalra knows his bill isn’t serious, but he’s acting like he’s not a joke.

The last time Democrats introduced a similar bill (Senate Bill 562), the Senate Appropriations Committee estimated it would cost $400 billion — and would cost the general fund budget $286 billion. current dollar. The full Senate passed it anyway. Senators know it’s out of pocket, threatens the economy, and will die in Congress, but they can say they boldly supported the single-payer system during their campaign. me.

Finally, Governor Gavin Newsom proposed in his budget a health care coverage plan for all low-income adults. He says it will cost $2.7 billion a year, but will likely cost much more. The plan is more accountable and realistic than AB 1400 or ACA 11, but Newsom’s description of “doing” on his universal health care commitments also involves a number of actions.

Newsom knows progressives will never agree that expanding existing programs will help universal health care. His idea is too expensive, but at least it will only expand existing programs rather than scrapping private health arrangements and replacing them with a new bureaucracy that can function effectively. such as the Employment Development Department.

Those are the latest antics from Sacramento, where healthcare policy leans more towards healthcare than problem solving.