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Californians like single-payer health care — until they learn taxes must rise to pay

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  • Californians like single-payer health care — until they learn taxes must rise to pay



    Whether to establish a state-run, single-payer health-care system is shaping up to be one of the main differences among the candidates for governor in California in the run-up to the June primary election. The front-runner, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, says the only thing stopping single-payer in California is a lack of political leadership. The candidate running second in the pack, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, says he supports single-payer but has concerns about how to pay for it.

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    The cost is more than concerning, it’s catastrophic. Implementing a single-payer system would require tens of billions of dollars in new taxes — and thereby lead the Golden State into financial ruin.

    The state Senate has admitted as much. The chamber passed Senate Bill 562 in June to create a system that provides “free” care to all California residents, including undocumented immigrants. The bill would eliminate co-pays, deductibles and all other forms of cost-sharing.

    The price tag for the single-payer plan envisioned by SB562, per a Senate Appropriations Committee report, is $400 billion per year. Half of that figure would come from new taxes.

    To put those figures in perspective, the state’s total expenditures next year are projected to be about $183 billion. So single-payer would effectively double the state budget.

    Californians do not want to shoulder all these extra costs. According to a May survey from the Public Policy Institute of California, two-thirds of Californians backed a single-payer system earlier this year. But support plummeted by more than a third when respondents were told the plan would raise taxes.

    Hefty new taxes aren’t the only reason why ordinary Californians are leery of single-payer.

    Many voters don’t realize that single-payer means there would be only one health insurance plan statewide — a government-run one. Forty-seven percent of all Americans, and 52 percent of Democrats, mistakenly believe they’d be able to keep their current plans in a single-payer system, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation study.

    The single-payer system under consideration by the Legislature would require the 18 million Californians who have employer-sponsored health plans to give them up. The 4.5 million Golden State seniors on Medicare — and 13 million people on Medi-Cal — would have to do the same.

    Many patients would lose access to their doctors. Some physicians would retire early to avoid the pay cuts and administrative headaches that a government-run system would no doubt bring. Others would move to other states, where their earning power would be greater. And the most talented medical graduates would think twice before coming to California, where the state could micromanage their practice of medicine — and would pay them less.

    Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have balked at the plan. Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, a Democrat from Los Angeles County, shelved the bill this summer, calling it “woefully incomplete” on “financing, delivery of care, cost controls” and more.

    “Free” health coverage that covers every service and procedure sounds wonderful. But the single-payer system that’s captivated so many progressives in California would be far from free. It’d impose tens of billions of dollars in new taxes, deprive millions of Californians of the health plans they have and like, and result in rationed care when demand outstrips what the state is willing and able to pay for.


    Sally C. Pipes is president and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute and author of “The Way Out of Obamacare” (Encounter 2016). Twitter: @sallypipes
    I wear a Fez. Fez-es are cool

  • #2
    I have been more entertained with them not allowing ammo purchases and the Oregonites crying about having to pump their own fuel.

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    • #3
      Utopia is expensive
      WH

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by Gasser64 View Post
        Utopia is expensive
        If California is your version of Utopia...

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Scott Mc View Post
          I have been more entertained with them not allowing ammo purchases and the Oregonites crying about having to pump their own fuel.
          Haha I didn't know Oregon finally got rid of that stupid law.
          I don't like Republicans, but I really FUCKING hate Democrats.


          Sex with an Asian woman is great, but 30 minutes later you're horny again.

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          • #6
            I hope they pass it alongwith every other crazy bill that the commies can think of.
            Magnus, I am your father. You need to ask your mother about a man named Calvin Klein.

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by LANTIRN View Post
              Haha I didn't know Oregon finally got rid of that stupid law.
              They didn't. They just allow cities with a population under 40k to have self service stations now. The freaks in Portland still have their $12 an hour station attendants.

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              • #8
                Originally posted by svauto-erotic855 View Post
                I hope they pass it alongwith every other crazy bill that the commies can think of.
                Unfortunately all that does is cause more of them to migrate to Arizona, Texas, or Colorado as their fucked up laws fuck up California, then they started reimplementing their fucked up ideas in those states.
                I don't like Republicans, but I really FUCKING hate Democrats.


                Sex with an Asian woman is great, but 30 minutes later you're horny again.

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by BP View Post
                  They didn't. They just allow cities with a population under 40k to have self service stations now. The freaks in Portland still have their $12 an hour station attendants.
                  It was weird living there because you can pump your own diesel but not unleaded. Station attendants freak the fuck out when you start pumping your own otherwise.

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by TX_92_Notch View Post
                    If California is your version of Utopia...
                    San Fran, San Diego/Ocean City are awesome places to go. The whole middle area is a giant smelly asshole.

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                    • #11
                      New Jersey it’s still illegal to pump your own gas. Which makes no sense because it’s like one of the cheapest gas pricing in the country. You would think the associated costs and taxes that it wouldn’t be.

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by TX_92_Notch View Post
                        If California is your version of Utopia...
                        To them, distopia is utopia. Its what they wish they may, wish they might, have this wish they wish tonight. To be killed by a brutal socialist dictator like all those other people who they deem were so fortunate.
                        WH

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                        • #13
                          This shouldn't be surprising to anyone, the lefties among us only want this stuff if it is actually FREE SHIT.
                          Originally posted by racrguy
                          What's your beef with NPR, because their listeners are typically more informed than others?
                          Originally posted by racrguy
                          Voting is a constitutional right, overthrowing the government isn't.

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