Twenty months ago, then-Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom sealed the endorsement of the powerful California Nurses Association in the governor’s race with an impassioned promise to bring single-payer health care to the Golden State.
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“There’s no reason to wait around on universal health care and single-payer in California. It’s time to move [Senate Bill] 562. It’s time to get it out of committee,” Newsom told a nurses union conference in September 2017. “If we can’t get it done next year, you have my firm and absolute commitment as your next governor that I will lead the effort to get it done. We will have universal health care in the state of California.”
But now, as Newsom undertakes a “California for All” tour of the state’s largest cities, that ambitious rhetoric has long since given way to more modest proposals – and to attempts to dampen expectations. Instead of the governor reviving Senate Bill 562 – a 2017 measure passed by the Senate that would have committed the state to creating a single-payer system – he now says that’s not feasible without the assistance of the federal government.
Newsom has asked the Trump administration to give California a waiver from federal laws allowing the state to set up its own unique health care system – and for a sum equivalent to the amount the federal government now spends on health care for state residents. Senate Bill 562 died in the Assembly over expectations it would cost about $400 billion a year – double the state’s budget.
Governor risks backlash from fellow Democrats
The May Revise of the 2019-20 state budget that Newsom unveiled last week includes several proposals to expand availability of health care partly subsidized by the state government, in particular raising the income threshold of eligibility up to $73,000 a year. Individuals who make $48,000 a year or more are not eligible for federal subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. But he stopped short of extending Medicaid coverage to unauthorized individuals in California, citing its $3.4 billion cost. And he made no concrete proposals on advancing single-payer beyond previously announced plans to use the newly created state Council on Health Care Delivery Systems to examine how the state could transition to such a system.
The potential for a backlash from Newsom’s own party is clear. Politico reported in March than Newsom believed strongly that leadership on single-payer should be led by “the horseshoe,” an insider’s term for the governor’s unusually shaped office. But having a commission look at the state’s possible courses of action isn’t the dramatic move that fans of Democratic presidential candidates like Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren want. A Quinnipiac University poll released in February showed 61 percent of state Democrats back a government-run single-payer system in California.
The California Nurses Association has expressed disappointment with the lack of progress. In February, CNA lobbyist Stephanie Roberson told the Sacramento Bee that it was “baffling” that no state lawmaker had introduced a measure like Senate Bill 562 and said her union strongly believed that incremental improvements in health care access were not enough.
“We can’t, as leaders, just protect what we have because we fundamentally believe that health care is [a] human right,” Roberson said.
Governor Backtrack!
This article smacks of Communist Program support and seems to support single payer Medical that anyone paying attention does not want.
We have already seen what the self appointed ” Elite ” think is reasonably priced healthcare through Obuttma care . Case in point , someone close to me was forced to pay 2500.00 a month for himself and his wife. That was cold , hard , cash . To those who still don’t understand that means that he needed to make in the neighborhood of 60,000 a year JUST TO PAY THE INSURANCE. By the way , that figure does not include co-pay and or ” share of cost ” .
Stop the attack on America and STOP THE ONSET OF COMMUNISM by not supporting this type of liberal , leftist agenda.
It is the desire of the left to have TOTAL CONTROL and POWER over us .
Make no mistake , the Democratic Party of today IS the mask of New World Order Communism and threatens even our basic freedoms.
From the sword of—-
The complete take over of health care would not be a good thing for CA. Look at the MESS this state is in now and the reason to give ILLEGALS ALL THIS FREE STUFF IS TO GET THEIR VOTES FOR THE damn-Dems. No —they will make corruption just more and worse than it already is! Build that wall and keep out the illegals and show a better job of taking care of CA. INFRASTRUCTURE ! Get it?? Got iT!
You like your Taxes, well you can expect more Taxes….
Why not, create a California Public Option? ( CPO )
Simply – Let anyone, or any non-profit organization, including unions, buy coverage from the state’s employee health care program. Cost it at the same per employee/family state cost.
. This program should also cover any municipal employee coverage’s.
Being an option, this would provide competing costs to pvt insurance company quotes. . If it works out well, open this program to business. Begin with business with less then 50 employees.
…}” single-payer should be led by “the horseshoe,” an insider’s term for the governor’s unusually shaped office..”
A fitting one, since the source of all horse manure is never out of close proximity to a horseshoe.
My daily prayers continue to rescue myself and my house equity out of this asylum, before the only true successful voting method WITH MY FEET also stops working.
It also describes the occupant of that office as a horse’s A*s.
Proving yet again, Democrats:
1. Are not for health care; they are for the nurses unions
2. Are not for education; they are for the teachers unions
3. Are not for immigration; they are for SEIU-CSEA service unions
4. ……………..
California voters must reject the Democrat union-pandering revolving door politics, and take back their government.
Critical question: what exactly is “health care”?
If we are paying for it, what exactly do we get. We act like we know what the word “health care” actually means, but we don’t.
Is it “everything” we want; it is rationed, are their death panels; it is cosmetic procedures; what the heck is “health care”. Is it just paying a 3P for their market rate insurance premiums.
Do not write a blank check for something that no one has defined.