SB 770: California takes small step toward single-payer health care as Newsom signs bill

On October 7, California took another step — at least a potential step — toward becoming the first state in the nation to provide health insurance to every resident through a state-run single-payer system. not everyone supports single payer were happy with it. In fact, a significant portion of them remain unhappy.

The California Nurses Association, which has long been the leading single-payer system advocacy group in the state, rejects SB 770 as an unnecessary measure that only slows the march toward a single-payer system.

For what? The bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, Senate Bill 770, takes a slow approach toward creating a single-payer system — 18 months after a much more ambitious bill aimed at implementing implement a single-payer system called CalCare died in the Legislature without a vote. . In fact, the SB 770 represents the 10th attempt to create single-payer health insurance in California since 1994.

Of course, this all ended in failure.

What is single-payer health insurance?

In the current system, a multitude of entities ranging from private insurance companies to government agencies to patients themselves pay for health care services. Below a single payer system, as the name suggests, a single entity pays the bills. This is usually the government.

Single payer is often accused by its opponents of “socialized medicine.” But there is a big difference. In a socialized health system, the government not only foots the bill for services, it also owns and operates all health care facilities. Doctors, nurses and all health professionals are paid by the government.

Even though the government would not own health care facilities, a single-payer system would replace private health insurance, essentially putting these companies out of business. The defunct CalCare plan contained provisions allowing private health insurance workers who lose their jobs to receive financial support and career retraining.

The money needed to cover health care costs in a single-payer system would come from taxes, but most health care costs are already covered by the government through programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. Funds currently dedicated to these programs would be redirected to the single-payer system, once it is implemented.

New law requires state to publish reports

Redirecting these funds is at the heart of SB 770. Any state wishing to use Medicare and Medicaid money for its own single-payer system must obtain permission, in the form of a waiver, from the federal government. THE the bill directs California Health and Human Services Agency Secretary (currently Dr Mark Ghaly) to submit a report by June 2025 detailing how California would obtain this waiver.

The Secretary of Health must also submit a preliminary report by January 2025 on how the state would implement either a single-payer system or another form of universal health coverage. The final report is expected in November of the same year.

No other state has a single-payer program. Vermont passed a bill to create one in 2011. But three years later, then-Gov. Phil Shumlin—after campaign on a promise get the system up and running — said it was “not the right time” for a single-payer system and put the brakes on the entire process.

But the California Nurses Association, which has long been the leading single-payer system advocacy group in the state, rejects SB 770 as an unnecessary measure that only slows the march toward a single-payer system. Carmen Comsti, policy specialist for the nurses’ union, told the Los Angeles Times that the bill was unnecessary because the research it requires the state to do has already been done.

SB 770 is simply a waste of time and money, he told the newspaper. And Sandy Reding, the president of CNA, said the bill represents a “complete betrayal of nurses’ fight for a single-payer health care policy,” according to a report from the politics site. Call.

CNA supports a different bill, Assembly Bill 1690which consists of a single sentence: “It is the intent of the Legislature to ensure accessible, affordable, equitable, and high-quality health care for all Californians through a comprehensive single-payer universal health care program that benefits to all residents of the state. .”

But AB 1690 did not pass the legislature at all.