Assembly Democrats must decide Monday whether to continue pushing for the bill as opposition grows.
California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara is backing the CalCare single-payer bill in the state assembly but warned supporters that it will face stiff opposition from commercial payers who are "going to fight to keep their profits before all else."
"Despite the incredible progress we have made, the pandemic has laid bare the inequities in how Californians access healthcare coverage," Lara said in a letter to Assemblymembers Ash Kalra (D-27), one of three cosponsors of AB 1400.
"We have paid a deadly price for the needless discrimination, complexity, and excessive costs of for-profit insurance," Lara said. "That is why we need to continue to fight for a single-payer plan that will protect all Californians and serve our collective public health."
Assembly Democrats must decide Monday whether to continue pushing for the bill as opposition strengthens.
In a letter to lawmakers, a coalition of more than 100 business and professional associations – led by the California Chamber of Commerce, and including Anthem, Inc., and Blue Shield of California – said previous estimates of similar bills put the cost of the single-payer initiative at more than $400 billion a year, roughly four times the size of Medi-Cal.
"Successfully standing up a new function that would be twice the size of the existing state budget is highly doubtful, given the state’s recent experience with benefit delays and massive fraud in the unemployment system," the letter said.
"The kinds of tax increases needed to finance AB 1400 would detrimentally impact California businesses and certainly discourage companies from growing or relocating here," the letter said.
Lara said the rhetoric from payers is not surprising.
"Insurance companies and healthcare plans are going to fight to keep their profits before all else and we need to keep fighting for people's right to quality healthcare," he said. "I believe the only way to achieve 'healthcare for all' is to keep pushing for it."
Even with recent efforts to expand healthcare coverage through the Affordable Care Act and state initiatives, Lara said the "current health care system is a complex, fragmented multi-payer system that still leaves wide gaps of coverage and poses significant issues of affordability."
"Despite healthcare spending in the United States far exceeding that of other high-income, industrialized countries that offer a publicly financed single-payer system, we consistently report worse health outcomes and disparities among vulnerable populations," he said.
"Healthcare is a right, not a privilege only for those who can afford it."
Lara's letter can be viewed here.
“Insurance companies and healthcare plans are going to fight to keep their profits before all else and we need to keep fighting for people's right to quality healthcare.”
California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara
John Commins is a content specialist and online news editor for HealthLeaders, a Simplify Compliance brand.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
A coalition of more than 100 business and professional associations said similar bills have put the cost of the single-payer initiative at more than $400 billion a year, roughly four times the size of Medi-Cal.
Lara said the "current health care system is a complex, fragmented multi-payer system that still leaves wide gaps of coverage and poses significant issues of affordability."