California Democrats Propose Universal Healthcare Funded by New Income and Business Taxes
Bonus: Healthcare services will be extended to illegal immigrants.
When California Governor Gavin Newsom survived the 2021 recall election, it was pretty clear he and the Democratic political leaders in the state would double down on progressive policies.
Stand back, America, and watch the power of a fully operational socialist state.
California would enact a sweeping, first-in-the-nation universal healthcare plan under a proposal unveiled Thursday by a group of state Democratic lawmakers, providing health services to every resident and financed by a broad array of new taxes on individuals and businesses.
Though some of the policy details of the ambitious plan were laid out last year, the way to fund it had not been determined. The proposal, now laid out in separate pieces of legislation, faces significant hurdles in the coming months — first at the state Capitol, with opposition from groups representing doctors and insurance companies, and then possibly at the ballot box, as voters would have to approve the taxes in an amendment to the California Constitution.
“There are countless studies that tell us a single-payer healthcare system is the fiscally sound thing to do, the smarter healthcare policy to follow, and a moral imperative if we care about human life,” Assemblyman Ash Kalra (D-San Jose), the proposal’s author, said Thursday.
The plan calls for a wide array of taxes on payroll and income.
Assemblyman Ash Kalra proposed an amendment to the state Constitution that would impose an annual tax of 2.3% on businesses that have at least $2 million in annual revenue, plus a 1.25% tax on payroll for companies with at least 50 employees and a 1% tax for those employers who pay employees at least $49,900.
The plan also includes a series of tax hikes on wealthier people, starting with a 0.5% levy on the income of people who make at least $149,509 per year and ending at a 2.5% income tax for people who make more than $2.48 million per year. The California Taxpayers Association, which opposes the bill, says the plan would increase tax collections by $163 billion per year.
Tax Foundation’s Jared Walczak crunched the numbers to determine the possible damage the tax increases could inflict on people and businesses.
“Imagine, for instance, the overly simplified hypothetical of a company with 49 employees making $80,000 each,” he writes . “At 49 employees, the company has no payroll tax burden. Hiring one additional employee generates a tax bill of $90,000 — more than that employee’s salary!”
So, too, the tax on gross business receipts is poorly structured and harmful. Walczak explains:
“Gross receipts taxes are widely understood as extremely disruptive and inequitable taxes, because they are imposed on businesses without regard to their profit margins. For low-margin businesses like supermarkets, 2.3 percent of gross receipts may literally exceed current profits even if the company is doing well. For instance, Kroger’s profit margins dipped to 0.75 percent in late 2021 and have historically hovered around 1.75 percent. These taxes are even worse for businesses posting losses, including startups that haven’t turned profitable yet, because they are taxed on their receipts even if their expenditures exceed revenues. For startups, a high-rate gross receipts tax could be disastrous.”
California lawmakers have introduced a plan to almost *double* state tax revenue, at an additional cost of $12,250 per household.
A new 18.05% all-in top marginal rate on income.
A 2.3% GRT would be 3x the nation's current highest.https://t.co/Ov2lqVXeL8 #CALeg #capolitics
— Jared Walczak (@JaredWalczak) January 6, 2022
As a bonus, the universal healthcare program will include illegal immigrants.
Governor Gavin Newsom presented his “California Blueprint” plan, detailing his $286.4 billion budget proposal for the 2022-2023 fiscal year.
Newsom’s office says his plan will “build on the state’s ongoing work to confront California’s greatest existential threats, bolster our strong economic growth and make historic investments in California’s future.”
Some of the notable parts in the proposal include fighting climate change and providing universal healthcare to everyone, including illegal immigrants.
Newsom’s “Health for All” proposal removes Med-Cal exclusions for all people living in California illegally.
Newsom recently went to social media to assert California is a “model for the nation.”
NEW: With a surplus of over $45.7 BILLION — California is a model for the nation on how we can confront our greatest existential threats and make historic investments in our future.
We can lead with science and still have a successful economy.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) January 10, 2022
He and I agree on that point. However, we diverge on exactly what type of model this proposal is.
California lawmakers are fantastic at finding clever solutions to hard problems. The Golden State is clearly a model to be emulated on how to effectively govern. They deserve even more tax dollars because they have proven they know how to effectively spend it. pic.twitter.com/eH8spsZwXh
— Leverage Point, Decades Not Days (@point_leverage) January 8, 2022
The only winners in this proposal are current homeowners in Utah and Idaho, who should continue to see their home values soar.
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Comments
California….getting exactly what they voted for
We only have shit candidates here … doesn’t matter who you vote for … this is inevitable.
Gee whiz, these people need to be curb-stomped!
If this proposal becomes law, that will be the action. The reaction should come fairly quickly.
No doubt, if it becomes law, the governor will sign the bill with soy ink.
“…providing health services to every resident ” = providing tyrants with complete control of the people. The discussion will be about financial issues when it should be about freedom and liberty and concentrated power.
Straight out of the liberal handbook:
Step One: Launch new entitlement with revenue projections that assume no one will act in their self interest and lowball the cost projections.
Step Two: Costs are higher than forecast and revenues are lower.
Step Three: Seek a federal bailout from sane America.
Step Four: they GET the bail-out.
They need to enact a tax on leaving California. Something like 100% of net worth plus a putative tax after leaving.
Californians! Listen up!! Your neighboring states DO NOT WANT YOU.
Not surprisingly, they’ve already thought about it and are seriously considering it. Whether or not something like that would survive judicial review is another question altogether.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2021/07/12/moving-avoids-california-tax-not-so-fast/?sh=7b3d6075ffd8
I noted their list included getting new phone numbers. I switched my personal mobile out virtually immediately when I left in 2005.
If you have a pension or deferred comp plan earned while a CommieFornia resident you need to do your homework. They have won SOME cases in tax court where they have argued that earnings from Cali have never been taxed and they want a piece of that annuity.
You are at greater risk if it is a state or municipal plan funded within Cali.
States like Wisconsin have won tax residency litigation based on seemingly innocuous things as a fishing license. Snow birds who maintain a seasonal residence in Wisconsin, even though they spend only a few months back in their former states, have made the mistake of applying for a resident license to save 50 bucks. The problem is that there is a signed affirmation at the bottom of that application which says you are a Wisconsin RESIDENT. Costly mistake!!
—Some good information at the link above!!
Five more years and there will only be the wealthy, the impoverished and everyone who’s too house poor to leave, left in California. Socialism always destroys the middle-class.
As it’s designed to do.
To be fair, they actually tell you that.
.
They have no intention of finding a way to fund it 100%. They will launch the program,, then run, sniveling, to Congress for a bailout. Even with a veto-proof GOP Congress, the US taxpayer will be saddled with paying the shortfall.
It seems liberalism is always in need of funding.
Let’s remember CA elected Gavin TWICE. They got what they voted for.
The Bay Area counties and Los Angeles County brought him over the majority line. The Mammoth Lakes district, the Siskiyou region, and the Sierras did NOT vote for him even once.
The problem is that we also got what they voted for.
It’s almost as if the politicians in California hate normies.
Can’t pay for anything when you have driven your tax base to other states.
Expect the same grabby greed from cal tax authorities as New York, who will audit you for decades after you flee in the hopes of catching you doing business in the state once.
It’s the “fiscally sound thing to do”?!?!?!??
Has this guy spoken to anyone in Vermont who was involved in the effort to establish single-payer there and it was abandoned because after crunching the numbers they admitted it would bankrupt the state?
The alternatives are fiscal ruin or rationing services to keep costs down. What do you think they do in Canada? They ration things. Oh, so sorry, we had a set amount of cataract surgeries for the year and even though it’s October, we’ve hit the limit. You’ll have to wait until next year.
I guess in the case of CA providers’ reimbursement rates will be quite low, a la what we see right now with Medicaid, and since it’s universal the providers won’t be able to opt out like they can with Medicaid. I can see doctors retiring, facilities closing, and those still in business stretched to the limit.
Oh, and those who are able will go to other states, Mexico, or other countries for health care and pay out of pocket. That’s what Canadians do: It’s a relief valve and there are times provincial health authorities will send people to the States for medical care and foot the bill.
It’s one thing if it is cataract surgery, Not many of those are emergency or even a surprise but the wait for a Canadian MRI scan can kill you.
I waited ten weeks for a MRI in Toronto. On the other hand, my dog can get one tomorrow.
CA has moved past the point of commie-curious. The CA leadership is clearly in authoritarian mode. They do not comprehend the implications of these policies in the real world. They seem to simply make basic calculations as to projected revenues and costs while ignoring the real world behavior of individuals and businesses.
Guys, you should get out of CA and relocate to a sane State, but please don’t import the philosophy or policies that drove you to depart.
California is not a limitless source of revenue . The Left believes they make the state successful.
I reiterate that the Dhimmi-crat apparatchiks should be pressed to tell their constituents how American citizens can obtain the same deference, sympathy and dutiful attention paid to their needs that the Dhimmi-crats currently extend to illegal aliens.
“There are countless studies that tell us a single-payer healthcare system is the fiscally sound thing to do, the smarter healthcare policy to follow, and a moral imperative if we care about human life,” Assemblyman Ash Kalra (D-San Jose), the proposal’s author, said Thursday.
—————
The vile Dhimmi-crats dare to claim that they care about human life, given their support for totally unfettered infanticide. These reprobates are as stupid as they are morally bankrupt.
From reading the article it sounds like California will eliminate all other health plans in the state. If so, all health care providers who are paid by third party providers will have to decide to accept one of three options; accept payment schedules set by California bureaucrats, go to private payment, or leave.
I suspect the second and third options will be much more acceptable by quality healthcare professionals than the first option.
No one is going to call him out on that magic budget surplus??? California is among the highest debt of any state according to usdebtclock.org.
I will say this though. The gross receipts numbers are misleading bc you have to take into account how much the company spends on employee healthcare plans which will now be spent on paying these taxes. It’s probably not a neutral shift but it should be accounted for.
Also if this plan doesn’t invest significant huge amounts into health care resources and infrastructure it will be disastrous because every hypochondriac or helicopter parent with a boo boo will be going in if theres no copay.
Lastly lower class is likely to try and scam and set up malpractice/liability traps with our litigious society.
That’s exactly what happens here in Toronto, Canada. Last time I was in a hospital emergency room, I heard the nurses telling a gentleman “This is the third straight day you’ve come here. You have a cold, just stay in bed for a couple of days.”
“This island is made mainly of coal and surrounded by fish. Only an organizing genius could produce a shortage of coal and fish at the same time.”
Aneurin Bevan, Welsh Labour party politician, speech at Blackpool, 24 May 1945
Communists like Newsom promise that if you give them all your eggs, they’re going to make you a magical omelette. They take the eggs, never do you get an omelette.
When I fist registered to vote in Kali at 18, I registered as a Democrat. As soon as I could I changed to Republican. I was like, “F*** this s***!” I grew some brains.
How do people keep falling for this? Democrats like Newsom or De Blasio can save the world from climate “catastrophe” if you just hand over all your bank accounts and rights when they can’t even clean the sidewalks of human feces and drug addicts’ needles.
Snowplowing? Too tough a nut to crack. But saving the Planet? Yeah, they’re all over that.
Spoiler alert: the planet doesn’t need saving. When “climate catastrophe” doesn’t happen because it was never, ever going to happen (pace St. Greta) they’ll simply take credit for stopping something that didn’t need to be stopped because it wasn’t happening in the first place.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W33HRc1A6c&t=3s
“George Carlin – Saving the Planet”
But have fun, ya’ll, tiptoing through the vagrants’ s*** while voting for the planet saviors.
Related: Kamal Harris says the Biden administration didn’t see the corona virus variants coming.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/18/politics/kamala-harris-biden-administraton-delta-omicron-variant/index.html
:Harris says Biden administration ‘didn’t see’ Delta or Omicron coming”
Watch the whole thing, but around the 6:27 minute mark George Carlin, who died in 2008, predicts what caught the Biden/Harris completely flatfooted in 2021.
It may not be clear why I included the Aneurin Bevan quote. How do you create a shortage of anything in Kali given its rich abundance of natural resources?
Easy. Vote Democrat.
F***in’ eh, screw agriculture and ranching, we’ve got to save the Delta Smelt.
Say bye bye to bacon, Kali.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-17/california-s-new-pig-law-prompts-meatpacker-to-halt-pork-sales
It’s always amusing to me when I visit what family I have left in Kali and they complain about the high prices. “What are they doing to us,” they say when they fill up.
Yeah. Right. It’s the “greedy” oil companies and now BIG MEAT screwing you over. Let’s never examine how much the price of a gallon of gas is due to taxes that you voted for because, your air can never be clean enough. Cause and effect just doesn’t exist in their world.
I’ll never forget the time I visited my family and was watching the news. They showed an apaplectic woman filling her tank when gas hit $8/gallon. She’s watching the the price on the pump fairly shrieking higher and higher, and she shrieks, “What are they doing to us?”
They? They? I guess there are no mirrors in your house.
I now actively encourage my own family members not to move to Texas. If they haven’t caught on by now they never will. The past, as they say, is a different country. The Kali I lived in had SKS rifles on sale for $79.99
And if you don’t comply with some mandate (that has nothing to do with heath care) they will deny you health care.
Is there a way to avail yourself of all the Government Bounty of California without actually LIVING there?? Would a $100 PO Box get you in on all the FREEBIES?? Can you just “identify” as an “illegal resident” of CA if you live in another state? I mean “technically” you WOULD be an ILLEGAL RESIDENT, but just not one from across the border!