<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">The Sacramento Bee</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">March 13, 2018</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">Single-payer bill all but dead this year as California lawmakers craft new health package</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">By Angels Hart</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">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.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">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.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">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.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">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.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">Both expressed doubt, however, that single-payer bill could move forward this year.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">"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.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">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.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">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.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">Wood said he'd like to focus on a politically and financially obtainable approach to creating a universal health care system.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">"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."</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">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.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">"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."</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><a href="http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article203729964.html" class="">http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article203729964.html</a></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica-Light;" class="">===</div></body></html>