California Politicos Propose Single-Payer Heath Care Plan
Despite the fact that I hold no medical degree, I don’t think I am going out on a limb when I diagnose California’s political class as being certifiably insane.
The Golden State’s legislators are bracing for the repeal and replacement of Obamacare by proposing a single-payer, government-run health care plan that includes illegal aliens.
“We’ve reached this pivotal moment and I thought to myself: ‘Look, now more than ever is the time to talk about universal health care,’” one of Senate Bill 562’s authors, Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, said in an interview Friday.The Healthy California Act, co-authored by Sen. Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, was submitted just before the deadline for new legislation. It doesn’t yet offer many specifics other than the lawmakers’ intent: to create a so-called single-payer system that would pay for coverage for everyone.Proponents argue that single-payer systems make health care more affordable and efficient because they eliminate the need for reams of paperwork, but opponents say they raise taxpayer costs and give government too much power.
The assertions made by proponents of this plan are delusional:
- Every California resident has one plan and more choice. No more plan-switching or guesswork when insurance rates or plans change.
- You pick your doctor, not health insurers
- Clinicians make decisions about care, not computers
- By pooling health care funds in a publicly-run fund we get the bargaining power of the seventh largest economy.
- We cut out insurance company waste and duplication
- No more out of control co-pays and high deductibles
- Public oversight on costs and care, not decisions made in secret
- Managing prescription drug costs
Let me do a little translation from delusion into reality.
- With no choice, there is no competition, unless you are wealthy enough to leave the state for medical care. However, this is a golden opportunity for medical tourism companies!
- There will be a limited supply of doctors, as those who don’t want to go through the bureaucratic hoops for procedures and payment will also leave the state.
- Clinicians will be forced to make their treatment decisions based on the state-run rules: Why choose surgery when a pill will do?
- Shockingly, some funds need to be directed to other budget items instead of perks for illegal aliens (refer to Oroville Dam for a handy reference).
- Medicare, the system that is the foundation for this proposal, is rife with waste, fraud and abuse (e.g., 3 Floridians bilked the system for $1 billion).
- Co-pays and deductibles will be transformed into monies paid for non-state government healthcare services (like the Canadians who cross into the United States to obtain MRI’s and other innovative treatments).
- Public oversight will translate into political wheeling-and-dealing strictly for the benefit of those plugged into the rigged system. An indication that Sacramento may be headed for such a system, I offer this piece published in The Sacramento Bee for consideration: Why California must accept more corruption.
- The cost of drugs has soared, despite Obamacare. As an example, I had a skin medication that would cost me $150 for an annual supply. The same medication now costs nearly $1000 a year, and I no longer use it.
2018 will be the a critical election year for California…more so than anywhere else in the country. Hopefully, the voters will choose new representatives who will govern with more reason and sanity.
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