Opinion: California can't manage universal health care. I'm glad my Assembly colleagues killed it. – The San Diego Union-Tribune

Davies represents the 73rd District in the California Assembly, which includes much of southern Orange County. She lives in Laguna Niguel.

Would you put the California Department of Motor Vehicles in charge of your health care? How about the state’s Employment Development Department, which during the worst months of the pandemic lost at least $20 billion to fraud, while denying benefits to millions suffering from losing their jobs?

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On Monday, just such a government health care bill was defeated on the Assembly floor thanks to the lack of votes, but that’s what Sacramento Democrats want to do with the state’s health-care system. Assembly Bill 1400 was sponsored by Assemblyman Ash Kalra, D-San Jose, to create a single-payer universal health-care system. Single-payer means the state government would take over the whole shebang.

Thank you to my Assembly colleagues and the thousands of California residents who made their voices heard through emails, phone calls and petitions.

Believe it or not, last month this bill cleared two Assembly committees and headed to the Assembly floor. It seemed well on its way to being jabbed into the state’s medical blood system.

Three weeks ago, Kalra celebrated the initial approvals of what they called CalCare by enthusing, “As the single-payer movement continues to gain momentum, we signal to corporate interests that enough is enough; health care is a human right and it’s high time we reform our broken health-care system.”

“Corporate interests” means the insurance, hospital and drug companies that compete to take care of you. Sure, reforms are needed — to get rid of the previous dumb laws the Legislature passed, such as one banning you from contracting with a competing insurance company from another state.

And get this from the legislation’s wording: “The bill would require the state to seek all necessary waivers, approvals and agreements to allow various existing federal health care payments to be paid to CalCare.”

That means the state would have taken over care currently provided by Medicare, the Veterans Administration, federal worker insurance — maybe even military hospitals here. But what if a retiree or veteran moved to another state? How would Medicare and VA benefits be restarted? This measure was a mess.

Then there was the immense cost. The California Taxpayers Association pegged it at $163 billion a year. The University of California Labor Center estimated it was $222 billion. But the whole state general-fund budget for 2022-23 that Gov. Gavin Newsom just submitted would be a record $213 billion. So CalCare could have more than doubled the state budget!

And where would the money have come from? Look in the mirror. Under a companion measure to Kalra’s bill, The Wall Street Journal reported that “Employers with 50 or more workers would also pay a 1.25 percent payroll tax, which would be passed onto workers. Workers earning more than $49,900 would pay an additional 1 percent payroll tax.” The state income tax rate on the middle class, already 9.3 percent, would rise to 11.55 percent — “more than millionaires pay in every state but New York.” And that was just one of numerous tax increases in the bill.

The fact is few people in California currently are denied health care. Covered California, the state’s iteration of Obamacare, is mandatory for almost every working person who doesn’t have company-provided insurance. Medi-Cal covers the poor. And anyone who walks into an emergency room is mandated coverage by law.

Most people are happy with their current plans. That includes union members with contracts guaranteeing robust health insurance.

The author and the bill’s supporters praised the socialized medicine scheme of Canada, where he spent time as a child. But according to a 2021 study by the Fraser Institute, “Specialist physicians surveyed report a median waiting time of 25.6 weeks between referral from a general practitioner and receipt of treatment.” That’s almost half a year to see a specialist. No, thanks.

Even President Joe Biden opposed single-payer schemes when he beat democratic socialist Bernie Sanders, who campaigned on single-payer in the 2020 Democratic primary.

Coming on the heels of inflation, the excessive Newsom COVID-19 lockdowns and such boondoggles as the bullet train, we just couldn’t afford Assembly Bill 1400. Single-payer insurance would inject poison into California’s medical system. The patient — California’s citizens — must say no.