Los Angeles Times

Lawmakers reject another attempt to create single-payer healthcare

Head of Assembly panel cites legislatio­n’s cost and California’s huge budget deficit.

- By Anabel Sosa

— The latest attempt to bring a single-payer healthcare system to California failed in the state Legislatur­e last week, undercut by its steep price tag as lawmakers struggle with a mounting budget shortfall.

Assembly Bill 2200, the California Guaranteed Health Care for All Act, or CalCare, was designed to set up a universal, singlepaye­r healthcare system for all residents of the state. It died Thursday in the Assembly Appropriat­ions Committee. Assemblyme­mber Ash Kalra (D-San José) said he was “deeply disappoint­ed” that it died so early.

“I looked forward to preSACRAME­NTO senting the bill on the Assembly Floor and was confident it would pass,” Kalra said in a statement. “Losing the opportunit­y to advance the bill this year means further unnecessar­y delays in healthcare reform, allowing needless suffering and economic injustice to continue harming California­ns.”

But Assemblyme­mber Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland), chair of the committee, said: “We have an obligation to balance the budget in California. There were some tough choices to make.”

Wicks, who said she was a co-author of a previous single-payer healthcare bill, told reporters that lawmakers had to weigh the financial burdens that accompanie­d the sweeping proposal.

CalCare was projected to cost the state $392 billion annually. Meanwhile, California is grappling with a $45-billion deficit. Kalra said there is “significan­t cost-saving potential” with a single-payer model.

“I’m a big believer. But at the end of the day it’s a very expensive endeavor, one that is worthwhile that we should continue, as the years go on, to try to implement,” Wicks said. “But it was a difficult choice to make because of the current budget environmen­t that we’re in.”

“During hard economic times, CalCare is needed more than ever. Today’s setback is frustratin­g, but only temporary in our long-term campaign to pass CalCare,” said Sandy Reding, a registered nurse and president of the California Nurses Assn, a staunch supporter of single payer. “CalCare is not a matter of if, it’s when. CalCare has to happen.”

Just a few days earlier, volunteers with the organizati­on were calling lawmakers in hopes of a better outcome. Kalra joined the nurses and told them to “fight like hell” as a crowd of advocates cheered.

“There’s no one I’d rather fight with than the nurses,” he said.

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