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Healthy California Act: proposal to make findings about single-payer healthcare

leginfo.legislature.ca.gov

31–40 of 468 posts

Re: Healthy California Act: proposal to make findings about single-payer healthcare

#31
I don't understand this. Maybe I'm uneducated on "acts"?

> It is the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would establish a comprehensive universal single-payer health care coverage program and a health care cost control system for the benefit of all residents of the state.

This is literally the meat of the bill. The actual changes would still have to be voted on in separate bills, right? What is the point of this?

Re: Healthy California Act: proposal to make findings about single-payer healthcare

#32
Vermont tried this a few years ago, they had to cancel it since in the end it wasn't financially feasible [1]. CA is already dealing with severe budget issues [2][3], so while it sounds nice in theory I'm hesitant to believe the finances actually work out.

[1] http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/single-payer-vermont-1...

[2] http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-me-pension-crisis-davis-d...

[3] http://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/26/californias-revenue-picture-d...

Re: Healthy California Act: proposal to make findings about single-payer healthcare

#34
post #25
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would be great. Also would be great if two states could join up and offer single payer together.

West coast single payer?

Doesn't seem like a hard sell to get Oregon & Washington on board, politically.

Re: Healthy California Act: proposal to make findings about single-payer healthcare

#35

We are doomed.

How so?

This will likely be funded from income tax. As a mid-30s person who earns a decent tech salary and has zero hope of buying a house in the decent parts of the SF Bay area, I think this is another case of taking from the young to feed the old. We should totally do this single-payer thing and pay for it via a wealth tax (that takes the current price of your home into account). Lets make it tiny .. say 0.5% a year.

Re: Healthy California Act: proposal to make findings about single-payer healthcare

#36
post #29

I think this is great. California gets to experiment with a single payer system and I, as a Utahan, get to watch and see whether it works or not. Unless it completely fails, then we'll all need to bail Cali out. Can we try this in North Dakota first? ;)

Worked for many other countries. Seems to be quite a bit cheaper for individuals and nations as well. Not sure if it will work on a state level though.

Only if CA can negotiate lower costs, especially pharmaceuticals.

Re: Healthy California Act: proposal to make findings about single-payer healthcare

#37
post #5

A well-executed single-payer system would make California even more attractive for entrepreneurship and increase labor mobility for everyone. Life would be much easier if we could start companies or switch jobs without worrying about healthcare.

Very much agree. I wrote this about single payer, entrepreneurship and my time in Italy:

https://journal.dedasys.com/2017/02/22/entrepreneurship-and-...

Re: Healthy California Act: proposal to make findings about single-payer healthcare

#38
post #13
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of its residents.

In theory they could have a problem with really sick people moving to California for the healthcare, raising their costs. But that takes time, so maybe before it becomes a big problem, other states will do similar things.

Interesting idea.

In practice, I wonder if there'd be a grace period, e.g. your insurance doesn't kick in until you've lived in California a year. However, since so many jobs start your insurance benefits on day 1, I'd expect this would have to as well.

Re: Healthy California Act: proposal to make findings about single-payer healthcare

#39
post #13
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of its residents.

In theory they could have a problem with really sick people moving to California for the healthcare, raising their costs. But that takes time, so maybe before it becomes a big problem, other states will do similar things.

This isn't really an "in theory." Welfare states are fundamentally incompatible with open borders until we live in a world where equivalent levels of welfare are available everywhere. The incentives just don't add up.

On the other hand it could still work if the benefit is only available to Californians who have lived there for X years. Not sure about the legality of this though -- states can discriminate this way for in-state University tuition, but in Zobel v. Williams the Supreme Court ruled that Alaska couldn't pay out Permanent Fund dividends based on how long you had lived in Alaska (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Permanent_Fund).

Re: Healthy California Act: proposal to make findings about single-payer healthcare

#40

We are doomed.

Last I checked, single-payer health care in the US is not one of the signs of the apocalypse.

Unless you mean "It's going to be designed by the California legislature, therefore we're doomed to a horrible and expensive failure", in which case, yeah, that seems likely.

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