Thanks for tuning in for our series on single payer! What a difference a week makes; big update on SB 562.
On Friday, 6/23/17, CA Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) shelved the proposal saying it is “woefully incomplete” and has postponed any further legislative action until January 2018.
“If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free.” – P.J. O’Rourke
The Insurance Mom’s colleague, Michael Lujan (one of CA’s best-known expert insurance legislative analysts) offers this in his amazing post on LinkedIn:
Single Payer (SP) would:
- Replace all forms of private and public health insurance in California with a state government-run health system.
- Would eliminate an estimated half million insurance, health care administration and related jobs, tripling our current unemployment rate. And without payroll contributions going into the system, there will be no money to pay unemployment benefits.
- Could make California a health care destination for anyone seeking “free healthcare” as neither citizenship, nor permanent residency is required to use the SP system.
- Requires massive tax increases. The additional 15% payroll tax would make California the highest taxed state in the country.
If enacted, The Healthy California Act (SB 562) would be the largest tax increase in California’s history. The entire state general fund is $183 billion. As proposed, the bill would cost an estimated $400 billion for the initial year and unknown costs for subsequent years. While that may seem like a deal-killer, the bill moved forward to the State Assembly and should not be ignored (when it resurfaces in 2018).
While this bill may be dead in the water, single payer / universal healthcare / socialized medicine / Medicare-for-all have been floating around the brains of the public. The Insurance Mom wants her kiddies well-informed about these concepts. Tune in next week for more delicious blogginess in our series on single payer, “Health Care: a Right or a Privilege?”
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