Two things can absolutely be true: 1) our current healthcare system has enormous flaws; and 2) the solution to these flaws is not to turn our healthcare over to the State of California.
CA’s State Assembly is voting this week on a state-funded single payer healthcare system under legislation called AB1400. Private insurance plans would effectively be replaced by a state-run plan called “CalCare.”
The price tag? Between $314 billion and $391 billion every single year.
Yes, the State wants to take over our healthcare system.
The same State that runs an Employment Development Department that gave away at least $20 billion in fraud and has its third Director in 18 months.
The same State that runs the DMV, which saw average wait times grow 50% in 2019 (pre-pandemic), when 5-7 hour waits were regular.
The same State that budgeted $33 billion for a high speed rail project that is now pegged at ~$100 billion. It was supposed to be completed by 2020, and they haven’t even completed a segment between Bakersfield and Merced.
The same State that shut down our beaches in response to a respiratory virus that is least transmissible outdoors in the sun.
The same State that saw a massive pre-pandemic uptick in homelessness despite spending billions each year on the issue.
The same State that regularly rolls back criminal penalties and thwarts increased penalties for fentanyl peddling.
The same State that shut down our education system longer than just about any other based on government union demands. The same State where the most powerful teachers’ union President said: “There is no such thing as learning loss. It’s OK that our babies may not have learned all their times tables. … They know the difference between a riot and a protest. They know the words insurrection and coup.”
These are massive issues where hundreds of billions of dollars have been poured in … and things are inarguably worse.
We simple cannot allow our healthcare system to be taken over by (1) dysfunctional bureaucrats and (2) legislators whose social goals radically depart from our own individual healthcare choices.
Tell your assembly member to vote no!
Councilman Will O‘Neill represents District 7 on the Newport Beach City Council.
