The appetite for a single-payer health system in California is growing, with plans to introduce a bill in early 2024, according to a Bloomberg report.
While the state has been here before with other attempts to institute such a system, including bills vetoed by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in the early 2000s, the growing cost of healthcare under the current system is forcing focus onto alternative solutions, according to the report.
Estimates show that a single-payer system, possibly funded by multiple tax sources including payroll and excise, could save the state $200 billion-plus in its first decade, said Laurel Lucia of the UC Berkeley Labor Center.
The federal government would also have to be involved in helping ease through any such bill, as California would have to redirect the more than $200 billion it receives from Washington, D.C., for healthcare each year, the report said. Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed legislation that could allow the state to obtain waivers toward establishing such a universal statewide system.