Why progressives single-payer health care dream would bankrupt California
California progressives’ single-payer health care fever dream is back.This time, the cost could hit half a trillion dollars a year. Single-payer means the government pays, for everything.
Several candidates for governor are promising just such a government takeover of the state’s health insurance system.Billionaire Tom Steyer says, “Bernie Sanders was right.We need single-payer health care.” His campaign ads place a single-payer system at the center of his agenda.
Betty Yee, Xavier Becerra, and Tony Thurmond are on board, too.Meanwhile, California State Assemblyman Ash Kalra, D-San Jose, has reintroduced legislation to create “CalCare” — a bid to bulldoze private health insurance and replace it with a state-run health insurance monopoly.These are bold plans.They’re also complete fantasy.The California Legislative Analyst’s Office previously pegged the annual cost of CalCare at up to $552 billion — more than the entire state budget.
Even the sunnier projections run into the hundreds of billions of dollars.Even if California could afford a program that size, it’s not clear the state could run it.Look at the debacle that is Medi-Cal, the state’s version of Medicaid, the public health plan for low-income people.Enrollment has ballooned to roughly 15 million people, including about 1.6 million illegal immigrants.
That expansion has coincided with tens of billions of dollars in multiyear budget deficits.And Medi-Cal doesn’t exactly pay top dollar.Its rates are roughly two-thirds of what Medicare pays.
And Medicare itself pays far less than private insurance.California Post News: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube, WhatsApp, LinkedInCalifornia Post Sports Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, XCalifornia Post Opinion California Post Newsletters: Sign up here!California Post App: Download here!Home delivery: Sign up here!Page Six Hollywood: Sign up here!Doctors can do math.The program’s reimbursement often fails to cover their overhe...