California is considering a single-payer health care plan. All California residents, regardless of legal status, would be entitled to a free health care ride; no treatment denied, no deductibles, no nothing, no kidding. Only catch: It will cost more money than the Golden State has. Excerpt:
California has been considering a single-payer healthcare plan. S.B. 562, the “Healthy California Act,” is currently in committee, and today the numbers came out on what it would cost to actually make this plan a reality.
Spoiler alert: it’s not pretty.
According to analysis of the bill, it would cost a cool $400 billion to provide for the healthcare of all California residents. S.B. 562 would cover residents in California regardless of their legal status. If the bill were enacted, healthcare would be entirely free and there would be no deductibles, co-pays, or premiums–entirely free care.
One tiny, insignificant detail: there’s no way the state can afford this. California would have to raise an additional $200 billion in tax revenue just to pay for the Healthy California Act, although there’s nothing in the bill that would create a tax that to actually raise the money to pay for the care. It was suggested that a 15 percent payroll tax would provide revenue for the bill.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the cost is being labeled as the “biggest hurdle” to universal healthcare coming to California.
California is already circling the fiscal drain. There’s an old saying: “When you’re in a hole, the first thing you should do is stop digging.” California seems determined to trade in the shovel for a big damn Armageddon-style drilling machine.
If the California GOP has any brains – and mind you this is an organization that has managed to utterly marginalize themselves in a state that went overwhelmingly for Ronald Reagan in 1984, and for George H. W. Bush in 1988 – (well, those seem recent to me, anyway) they’ll grab on to this bigly. If this bill passes – and I wouldn’t be surprised if it does, the California Legislature doesn’t appear to have any grasp of fiscal reality – it’s only a matter of time before their new entitlement explodes.
That’s when the California GOP better damn well have a plan ready, something fiscally responsible to pitch to the voters, something that will save the Golden State from fiscal ruin.
You know – something like the House GOP in the Imperial City were busy preparing in the seven years since Obamacare passed. Remember that plan? The one they had seven years to prepare?
You know, True Believers, I think we may be fucked.
