Some California Democrats in the state legislature are attempting to have the formerly Golden State adopt a single payer health care system. The estimated cost for “free” health care in one state? Two hundred billion dollars:
The price tag is in: It would cost $400 billion to remake California’s health insurance marketplace and create a publicly funded universal heath care system, according to a state financial analysis released Monday.
California would have to find an additional $200 billion per year, including in new tax revenues, to create a so-called “single-payer” system, the analysis by the Senate Appropriations Committee found. The estimate assumes the state would retain the existing $200 billion in local, state and federal funding it currently receives to offset the total $400 billion price tag.
The cost analysis is seen as the biggest hurdle to creating a universal system, proposed by Sens. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, and Toni Atkins, D-San Diego.
I am a big believer in federalism so I say let them.
Also so many people are convinced single-payer can work, maybe it’s time a crash and burn be demonstrated in their neighbor’s backyard to teach them it won’t. It will be even more fun since CA is so one-party, it’s going to be a hard sell for the true believers to blame interfering republicans for this failure.
As PJ O’Rourke said, if you think health care is expensive now, wait until it’s free.
“Puerto Rico on the Pacific.”
Bienvenidos. I leave in 3 years 4 Mos ..but could be a lot sooner.
I think the state should supply catastrophic health insurance, only. All other forms of health insurance would be declared illegal as they serve only to drive up the cost of health care. Health care has become a racket in many respects with multiple moral hazards for doctors and patients.
I agree with Michael Dowd. As my father lay dying in 1965, I had a conversation with my family doctor about Medicare and Medicaid. He was adamantly opposed. He said it was socialized medicine and because it would put so much government money into the system that it would appeal to the greed of everyone involved. He had served in the army during World War II and had hated it. What it would do encourage many people to come to the doctor or go to the pharmacy unnecessarily, and to encourage them to think that every ill, even unhappiness, had a cure. The numbers being thrown out by Teddy Kennedy and others were nonsense. The demand for health care was unlimited. Therefore doctors would get rich, hospitals would get rich, suppliers would rich, and insurance companies would get rich. The relaionshio between doctor and patient would be altered. In the end, everyone involved would become a client of government and always demanding of new laws that would benefit them. The good thing was that public health would get much better. People would, however, be more careless of their health thinking that doctors could save them from their excesses. Bottom line, though, the cost to the government would be immense and if uncontaiend would become unaffordable.