California would have to find an additional $200 billion per year, including in new tax revenues, to create a so-called "single-payer" system, the analysis by the Senate Appropriations committee found. The estimate assumes the state would retain the existing $200 billion in local, state and federal funding it currently receives to offset the total $400 billion price tag.The cost analysis is seen as the biggest hurdle to create a universal system, proposed by Sens. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, and Toni Atkins, D-San Diego.
Steep projected costs have derailed efforts over the past two decades to establish a publicly funded, universal health care system in California. The cost is higher than the $180 billion in proposed general fund and special fund spending for the budget year beginning July 1.
Californians already pay some of the highest tax rates in the nation, which have all but driven out the state’s formerly robust middle class.
Single payer -- and the taxes required to pay for all that paying -- would be the final nail in California’s coffin.