[Occupymendocino] Single Payer all but dead in CA

[Richard Karch]

The Sacramento Bee
March 13, 2018
Single-payer bill all but dead this year as California lawmakers craft new health package
By Angels Hart

California Democratic lawmakers are quietly working on a package of up to 20 health care bills that would soften the political blow from the all-but-certain death of a single-payer universal care bill this year.

Senate Bill 562 cleared the Senate last year but stalled in the Assembly when Speaker Anthony Rendon blasted it as "woefully incomplete." The legislation still lacks a plan to cover its $400 billion price tag, a way to control rising health care costs and a strategy to secure federal waivers needed from the Trump administration.

Rendon has not formally killed the bill, but he told The Sacramento Bee earlier this month that a fresh health care package is in the works – the clearest sign yet that Senate Bill 562 is dead.

Democratic Assemblymen Jim Wood of Healdsburg and Joaquin Arambula of Fresno, who chair a special health committee formed by Rendon last year after the single-payer bill passed the Senate, said Tuesday they are eying legislation this year that seeks to improve quality, expand access and lower rising health care costs.

Both expressed doubt, however, that single-payer bill could move forward this year.

"I would say single-payer is not a reality this year because of the complexity of the steps that we need to go through," Wood said.

To capture current federal health care funding and use it to fund a state-based single-payer system, California would have to secure numerous federal waivers. Voters would likely have to approve changes to the state Constitution and massive tax increases would be required.

Wood and Arambula declined to say what specific bills they're planning to introduce, but said they're considering legislation based on a broad set of recommendations released Tuesday by a trio of health policy experts who produced a report analyzing the committee's work over the past four months in identifying a path forward on universal care.

Wood said he'd like to focus on a politically and financially obtainable approach to creating a universal health care system.

"I think that our report, our hearings illustrate pretty clearly that you can't go from concept to execution of a complicated, complex, completely transformative system in a really short amount of time," Wood said. "If you read our report...you’ll understand a little better why we couldn't just pass 562 and the next day everybody has health care. It just can't work that way."

Assemblywoman Laura Friedman, D-Glendale, said she's contemplating a bill that would establish a single-payer system in future years — once other benchmarks are met, such as achieving specific cost containment goals and obtaining needed federal waivers.

"I'm looking at legislation we could adopt that sets up a roadmap to single payer, just like we have with (Assembly Bill 32) that gives us a roadmap to reducing greenhouse gas emissions," Friedman said. "I'm also very interested in what can give people very real relief in the short-term."

http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article203729964.html <http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article203729964.html>

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