California looks to a single-payer health system amid proposed ACA changes

Kelly Gooch -

The idea of a state-run single-payer system is not dead in California, according to a Los Angeles Times report.

Here are four things to know.

1. California lawmakers on Feb. 17 proposed single-payer health plan legislation. The universal healthcare system would cover the state's nearly 40 million residents.

2. If such legislation passed, a state agency, acting like an insurance company, would receive money from Californians and then pay physicians and hospitals when people received treatment, according to the report.

3. This is not the first time universal healthcare has been proposed in California. In the 2000s, then-Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger at least twice vetoed bills on the matter, the Los Angeles Times reports.

4. The most recent proposal comes as Republicans continue efforts to repeal and replace the ACA. Amid these efforts, some California politicians and healthcare advocates see universal healthcare as a way for the state to defend itself from widespread changes to the ACA, to gain on the threat to the law, according to the report.

Read the full Los Angeles Times report here.

 

Copyright © 2024 Becker's Healthcare. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy. Cookie Policy. Linking and Reprinting Policy.