California Votes To Create A State Health Care Plan

Sacramento California

Just two days after Massachusetts elected a senator who opposes the president’s national health care plan, and one day after the speaker of the House said she did not have the votes to pass a national health care plan, California voted to create a single-payer system. By some estimates this will cost the state an estimated $210 billion in its first year on top of current California debt, which is about 20 billion in the red

The Senate Appropriations Committee released the bill for a vote by the full Senate next week. The legislation had been held over from last year because of the state’s ongoing budget crisis.

“California Democrats are either tone-deaf or delusional,” California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring said in a statement.

The bill is not the first attempt to set up a single-payer system in California, which has some 6.5 million uninsured. Two previous single-payer bills were passed by the legislature in recent years, only to be vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Governor tried and failed to establish his own universal health care plan at the start of his second term in 2007. On Thursday, Mr. Schwarzenegger, a Republican, again expressed his displeasure with a single-payer proposal, calling it at odds with fiscal reality, including a looming $20 billion budget gap in the state.

Just today the California unemployment was announced. Although unemployment remains unchanged at 12.4 percent, it is still fifth worst jobless rate in the nation.

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