It is just money! The cost of the single payer for all Californians will be $400 billion. In comparison, the total budget of the State of California as proposed by Guv Brown is $183 billion for 2017-18. Imagine the economic and health care disaster being proposed by the Democrats if this becomes law. There is not enough money to be stolen from the workers of California before they flee the State. This could even force the rich from the State—they would have to go to other States to get quality health care.
“It would cost the state of California an estimated $400 billion per year to cover all of its 39 million residents, according to a staff analysis by the state’s Senate Appropriation Committee. That’s more than twice the state’s total annual budget of $180 billion.
But the main legislative advocate for single-payer, Senator Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens), explained the state could get access to half of that amount, $200 billion, by shifting over what it already spends on Medicare, Medi-Cal and other state-run health services. That assumes the federal government would agree to let California re-route federal funds in that way.
To raise the other $200 billion, the state could implement a 15 percent payroll tax, according to the analysis, which was released Monday during a Senate Appropriations Committee in Sacramento. It’s unclear how that tax might be split between the employer and the employee.
Yes, the Democrats wants to add a 15% tax on your paycheck—that is after you pay Federal and State income taxes, sales and property taxes, utilities taxes. You will be working for the State! The good news is that Florida, Arizona, Texas, Nevada and other States will be happy to except the refugees from California. Now is the time to move—before the value of homes collapse.
Single-Payer Plan’s Price Tag in California: $400 Billion Per Year
By Carrie Feibel, KQED, 5/22/17
It would cost the state of California an estimated $400 billion per year to cover all of its 39 million residents, according to a staff analysis by the state’s Senate Appropriation Committee. That’s more than twice the state’s total annual budget of $180 billion.
But the main legislative advocate for single-payer, Senator Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens), explained the state could get access to half of that amount, $200 billion, by shifting over what it already spends on Medicare, Medi-Cal and other state-run health services. That assumes the federal government would agree to let California re-route federal funds in that way.
To raise the other $200 billion, the state could implement a 15 percent payroll tax, according to the analysis, which was released Monday during a Senate Appropriations Committee in Sacramento. It’s unclear how that tax might be split between the employer and the employee.
“Given this picture of increasing costs, health care inefficiency, and the uncertainty created by Republicans in Congress, it is critical that California chart our own path,” said Lara at the committee hearing.
“It will eliminate the need for insurance companies and their administrative costs and profits,” he added. “Doctors and hospitals will no longer need to negotiate rates and deals with insurance companies to seek reimbursement.”
At the hearing, Kyle Thayer, a paramedic who works in San Diego, urged the legislators to move forward with the plan.
“I see every single day the people that don’t have health coverage and the things that happen. Often they choose between one medicine and another, and end up in the back of my ambulance for something as simple as high-blood pressure medication,” said Thayer, a resident of Carlsbad.
His concerns were personal as well as professional, he said.
“My fiancee’s mother was trying to manage her blood pressure, and for a time wasn’t taking her medication, and she ended up with a stroke in the emergency room,” said Thayer. “It cost them all kinds of money.”
Opponents of the plan also spoke, including representatives of the California Chamber of Commerce and the California Association of Health Plans. Private health insurance companies would see their business model collapse in California in the face of a single-payer plan, which would be state-administered and not-for-profit.
“We don’t need to go backwards and start from scratch. This bill could have catastrophic implications for the health care system in our state,” said Teresa Stark, the chief lobbyist for Kaiser Permanente in California, which covers 8.5 million Californians.
“We share the goal of health care for all,” she explained, but added that a single-payer system would “dismantle Kaiser Permanente as we know it.”
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