{"id":25627,"date":"2023-03-24T21:59:47","date_gmt":"2023-03-25T04:59:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=25627"},"modified":"2023-03-24T21:59:48","modified_gmt":"2023-03-25T04:59:48","slug":"new-bill-would-pressure-newsom-to-speed-up-work-on-single-payer-health-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/03\/24\/new-bill-would-pressure-newsom-to-speed-up-work-on-single-payer-health-care\/","title":{"rendered":"New bill would pressure Newsom to speed up work on single-payer health care"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sophia Bollag<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

March 21, 2023 (SFChronicle.com)<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comments<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Gov.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has said for years that he supports creating a government-run health system in California. A new bill would pressure Newsom to accelerate his administration\u2019s work to create such a system.Juliana Yamada\/The Chronicle<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Gov. Gavin Newsom would face new deadlines on his administration\u2019s work to revamp the state\u2019s health care system under a bill unveiled Tuesday in the state Legislature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newsom, a Democrat, has said for years that he supports creating a government-run health system in California, including while campaigning for governor, but since taking office has not endorsed specific legislation to do so. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early last year, when Newsom was asked if he supported a bill to create a universal, government-run health care system in California, he dodged the question, saying he was waiting for a report from a state commission studying the issue. That report came out last April<\/a>, and endorsed a vast overhaul of California\u2019s health system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transitioning the state from a system where private health insurance companies control much of the market to one run by the state would be a huge undertaking, one that would require permission from the federal government in the form of a waiver. On his first day in office<\/a>, Newsom announced that he was pursuing such a waiver. More than four years later, California still does not have one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A bill Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, announced Tuesday would impose deadlines on the administration and give the Legislature a role in the process of securing a waiver. It doesn\u2019t explicitly call for a single-payer health care system, and instead uses the term \u201cunified financing,\u201d which is the language endorsed by the report from the state commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advocates of \u201csingle payer\u201d generally endorse a system that is government-run, and where the state is the sole entity paying for health care. A \u201cunified financing\u201d system could take that form, according to the report, but could also include a role for private insurance companies that fiercely oppose a single-payer system that would put them out of business. The report does, however, call for distinctions between private insurance and government plans to be dissolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wiener\u2019s bill, SB770, would require Newsom\u2019s health secretary to brief the Legislature on the status of its work to secure a federal waiver every few months, and to produce a formal report on the administration\u2019s progress and plans by June 2024. It would also give legislative leaders power to appoint people to a group advising the administration\u2019s work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt will really move the process forward,\u201d Wiener said. \u201cI think it will create a structured process and move this along more quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bill is important because it provides a structure for the administration\u2019s work toward remaking the state\u2019s health system, said Michael Lighty, president of the advocacy group Healthy California Now, a coalition of organizations led by the National Union of Healthcare Workers that is sponsoring the bill. Lighty, whose organization supports single-payer health care, said the deadlines could help speed up the administration\u2019s work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He commended the Newsom administration for the steps it has taken so far, including committing staff to work with the Biden administration on getting a waiver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom an advocate\u2019s point of view, you can always hope for a quicker pace, but frankly, it\u2019s complicated,\u201d he said. \u201cWe believe (SB)770 can put some definitive timelines on it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, legislative staff estimated a bill to create a single-payer system<\/a> would cost over $350 billion, more than the current $300 billion state budget. That would require hefty tax increases, though supporters say that such a system would reduce costs for consumers overall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any major changes to the health care system would be a very difficult political lift. Two past bills to create a single-payer system died amid staunch opposition, including from insurance companies and hospitals that argued such a change would cause a huge disruption in the health care system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newsom endorsed the first of those efforts, SB562, in 2017<\/a> and called on lawmakers to advance the legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m tired of politicians saying they support single payer but that it\u2019s too soon, too expensive or someone else\u2019s problem,\u201d Newsom, then lieutenant governor, tweeted that year<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On similar bills introduced since he became governor, he has been silent<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reach Sophia Bollag: sophia.bollag@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @SophiaBollag<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written By Sophia Bollag<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sophia Bollag joined the San Francisco Chronicle as a politics reporter in 2022. She has covered state government from Sacramento since 2016 and has worked at The Sacramento Bee, The Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times. She grew up in the East Bay and graduated from Northwestern University, where she studied journalism and literature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"San<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\"HEARST\u00a92023 Hearst Communications, Inc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sophia Bollag March 21, 2023 (SFChronicle.com) Comments Gov. Gavin Newsom would face new deadlines on his administration\u2019s work to revamp the state\u2019s health care system under a bill unveiled Tuesday in the state Legislature. Newsom, a Democrat, has said for years that he supports creating a government-run health system in… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[255,297],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25627"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25627"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25628,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25627\/revisions\/25628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}