California Lawmakers To Consider Universal Health Care Proposal

LOS ANGELES, CA — As Congress grapples with a politically viable way to eliminate Obamacare without leaving millions of Americans without healthcare, a pair of California legislators are betting the nation’s largest state could be the first to successfully implement universal health care for its 38 million residents including the undocumented.

State senators Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) and Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) on Friday introduced Senate Bill 562 also known as The Healthy California Act to bring universal health care California. The pair made no secret that they were inspired to take a polar opposite approach to healthcare reform from President Donald Trump.

They’re calculating that California has the size and economic might to pull off a single-payer system. However, critics warn that socialized medicine could lead to long wait times for medical care and undue burdens on taxpayers.

“Healthy California gives everyone insurance, because everyone has a right to health care,” Lara said in a written statement. “Trump and the Republicans don’t get to pick the healthcare winners and losers, and we’ll never get to 100% health care in California unless we lead.”

Atkins sees the proposal as the the antidote to the Obamacare repeal.

“Access to affordable and quality health care is not only critical, it should be a right for everyone in California,” she said. “In light of threats to the Affordable Care Act, it’s important that we look at all options to maintain and expand access to health care. The Healthy California Act is an essential part of that conversation.”

The bill calls for a single-payer system, but it does not specify how it would work or how the state would pay for it. The legislators contend universal healthcare would keep costs in check by eliminating the administrative overhead and profit motive of insurance companies.

Anna Johnson, an Alameda resident whose daughter suffers from a heart condition, told The Mercury News she's eager to see the end of insurance companies. She’s nervous about the repeal of Obamacare because it protects patients such as her daughter by prohibiting insurance companies from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions.

“Cut them out. They’re not good at it. They cause families like ours headaches,” she told the newspaper. “Just cut them out.”

The Mercury News, which first reported on the bill, also found critics of universal healthcare.

“It’s been a disaster in countries like Canada,” Sally Pipes, president and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute, a conservative think tank, told the newspaper. In Canada, patients endure long wait times to get an appointment with their doctor, she said.

Though light on specifics, Lara and Atkins claim that under SB 562:

• Every California resident has one plan and more choice. No more plan-switching or guesswork when insurance rates or plans change.
• You pick your doctor, not health insurers
• Clinicians make decisions about care, not computers
• By pooling health care funds in a publicly-run fund we get the bargaining power of the seventh largest economy.
• We cut out insurance company waste and duplication
• We would end out-of-control co-pays and high deductibles
• There would be public oversight on costs and care, not decisions made in secret
• We'd manage prescription drug costs

TELL US WHAT YOU THINK IN THE COMMENTS: Would universal health care be good for California?

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