© unknownThe size of the solution.
California would have to find an additional $200 billion per year, including in new tax revenues, to create a so-called "single-payer" system, the analysis by the Senate Appropriations Committee found. The estimate assumes the state would retain the existing $200 billion in local, state and federal funding it currently receives to offset the total $400 billion price tag.
The cost analysis is seen as the biggest hurdle to creating a universal system, proposed by Sens. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, and Toni Atkins, D-San Diego.
It remains a long-shot bid. Steep projected costs have derailed efforts over the past two decades to establish such a health care system in California. The cost is higher than the $180 billion in proposed general fund and special fund spending for the budget year beginning July 1. Employers currently spend between $100 billion to $150 billion per year, which could be available to help offset total costs, according to the analysis. Under that scenario, total new spending to implement the system would be between $50 billion and $100 billion per year.
"Health care spending is growing faster than the overall economy ... yet we do not have better health outcomes and we cover fewer people," Lara said at Monday's appropriations hearing. "Given this picture of increasing costs, health care inefficiencies and the uncertainty created by Congress, it is critical that California chart our own path."
Comment: Until the healthcare conundrum is finally, if ever, useful and affordable: