California Pumps Brakes On ‘Woefully Incomplete’ Single-Payer Legislation
Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon cited the fact that the bill doesn't address issues such as financing, delivery of care, cost controls, or the realities of needed action by the Trump administration.
The Associated Press:
California Assembly Leader Shelves Single-Payer Health Plan
The prospects of a government-run health care system in California dimmed Friday when the leader of the state Assembly announced he doesn't plan to take up the single-payer bill this year. Speaker Anthony Rendon called the bill "woefully incomplete." "Even senators who voted for SB 562 noted there are potentially fatal flaws in the bill," the Los Angeles-area Democrat said in a statement. (6/23)
California Healthline:
Blaming ‘Threat’ Of GOP Health Bill, California Hits Pause On Single Payer
A bill pushing a state-based single-payer system was brought to a halt late Friday when Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood, declined to move it forward. The bill will not get a hearing by the Assembly Rules Committee before the July 14 deadline, though it could be taken up again in 2018. It passed the California Senate on June 1. (Feibel, 6/26)
Sacramento Bee:
California Assembly Stalls Universal Health Care Bill
Democratic Sens. Ricardo Lara and Toni Atkins, who introduced the proposal, acknowledged the bill was dead for the year. Lara and Atkins had described the bill as a work in progress when it passed the Senate earlier this month without a funding plan. A legislative analysis pegged the cost at $400 billion. (Luna and Cadelago, 6/23)
San Francisco Chronicle:
California Shelves Single-Payer Health Bill
California will not be instituting single-payer health care anytime soon. Three weeks after the state Senate passed a bill that aimed to create a $400 billion-a-year single-payer system in California, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Paramount (Los Angeles County), abruptly shelved the measure Friday, calling it “woefully incomplete.” (Ho, 6/23)
The Mercury News:
Single-Payer Health Care Put On Hold In California As Leader Calls Bill ‘Woefully Incomplete’
Champions of single-payer health care say that it will save Californians money, even though their taxes would increase, because they would no longer pay premiums or deductibles and the system would eliminate insurance-company profits and overhead. A study released last month, commissioned by the nurses, found that such a system could save Californians $37 billion annually on health care spending, even as it covered nearly 3 million people who are now uninsured. Still, few political insiders expected the Assembly to pass the legislation this year, given its cost and the uncertainty surrounding the Affordable Care Act, which Republicans in Congress are trying to repeal. (Murphy, 6/23)
Capital Public Radio:
California Single-Payer Health Plan On Hold
A Senate financial analysis estimates the total cost at about $400 billion, double current government spending on health care. (Bradford, 6/23)
Sacramento Bee:
Bernie Sanders Unhappy With Parking Of California Universal Health Care Bill
Having recently urged California to be the nation’s leader in instituting universal health care policy, Sanders has been a strong supporter of Senate Bill 562, which would create a universal, publicly funded health care system for the state... In parking the bill, Rendon called the legislation fatally flawed, noting “serious issues, such as financing, delivery of care, cost controls, or the realities of needed action by the Trump administration and voters to make SB 562 a genuine piece of legislation.” (McGough, 6/24)