R&I – FS
When he unveiled a new state budget last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom crowed about California becoming the nation’s first state to embrace universal health care coverage.
His budget would accomplish that goal by extending state Medi-Cal coverage to undocumented immigrants of all ages, beginning in 2024.
“I campaigned on universal health care,” Newsom said a day later. “We’re delivering that.”
Not quite.
While running for governor in 2018, Newsom pledged to create a single-payer system for California, making the state the sole supplier of coverage.
“I’m tired of politicians saying they support single-payer but that it’s too soon, too expensive or someone else’s problem,” Newsom said during the campaign.
That pledge won Newsom the support of single-payer advocates. The California Nurses Association decked out a bus that toured the state with a picture of Newsom’s face and the words: “Nurses Trust Newsom. He shares our values and fights for our patients.”
However, once elected, Newsom did virtually nothing to implement the promise. Instead, as the state’s finances allowed, he extended Medi-Cal coverage incrementally to undocumented immigrants and others lacking private or public coverage.
Along with mandates and subsidies from Obamacare, state actions eventually raised health coverage to 94% of Californians and Newsom’s latest extension to undocumented adults would make it, at least on paper, 100%.
RandyMarsh
Article URL : https://calmatters.org/commentary/2022/01/newsom-single-payer-health-care/