Single-payer plan flatlines in Sacramento
The California Legislature just reminded us why single-payer health care continues to elude the left.
by JEREMY B. WHITE, CHRIS RAMIREZ, JUHI DOSHI and GRAPH MASSARA
[Ed.: NYPAN strongly supports passage of the New York Health Act - our version of Calcare]
THE BUZZ — CODE BLUE: The California Legislature just reminded us why single-payer health care continues to elude the left.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a better laboratory for progressive policy than California: Democrats wield two-thirds-plus margins in the Legislature and control every state office. The party’s hegemony here has allowed Sacramento to achieve a long series of liberal victories. But it’s been a different story for one health policy goal that has animated Democratic presidential campaigns and enthralled the progressive wings of both the California Democratic Party and its national counterpart.
This was supposed to be the year California progressives got closer. Assemblymember Ash Kalra spent months working with Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon on crafting a viable bill and a companion funding measure that would have generated revenue with an array of tax increases. While finding the votes to pay for it looked untenable in an election year and the proposed tax hikes drew a barrage of Republican attacks, single-payer supporters felt confident that the policy vessel could at least clear the Assembly floor. Even with four Democratic seats vacant, Kalra could’ve lost 15 members and still have had enough to keep the bill moving.
So much for that. In the end, Kalra didn’t even put his measure up for a vote, citing “heavy opposition and substantial misinformation.” In an echo of the schisms that yawned open in 2017, recriminations soon followed: Rendon expressed frustration in Kalra not calling the vote, saying in a statement that he was “deeply disappointed that the author did not bring this bill up for a vote today.” The California Nurses Association, long single-payer’s most prominent institutional supporter, excoriated Kalra in a statement as having “providing cover for those who would have been forced to go on the record” — a possible reference to moderate Democrats’ fears that their vote could cost them party support. Kalra told seething progressives on a call afterwards that the bill would have failed by double digits, and argued a futile vote would only have “alienated” colleagues he hopes to sway in the next round.
THE BIGGER PICTURE: The chance of single-payer becoming operative law this year was vanishingly tiny. Not only would legislators have needed to muster two-thirds votes to hike taxes, they would have had to put a constitutional amendment doing so before voters — a campaign that would surely have brought concentrated opposition from business and medical interests. Gov. Gavin Newsom pointedly sidestepped questions about the bill, saying he’d take the methodical approach of studying the issue and seeking federal permission.
But you can still distill a larger lesson out of this episode. This was an opportunity for California Democrats to demonstrate an ability to make concrete progress on a central issue for their party’s base. That they could not speaks to the enormous political obstacles involved in overhauling our deeply entrenched private insurance-based health care system — in the Golden State and beyond.
WHAT ELSE? Single-payer wasn’t the only bill to perish without an Assembly floor vote. The same applied for an effort to reduce Ellis Act evictions — underscoring again that California liberals don’t get all they ask for, particularly when the state’s powerful real estate lobby is involved. Conversely, legislation creating a fast food industry regulator, a labor priority, advanced with the absolute minimum margin.