Single-payer health care, a longtime goal of progressive Democrats and the nurses’ union, is dead for now. No further legislative action will be taken in 2017.
A bill pushing a state-based single-payer system was brought to a halt late Friday when Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood, declined to move it forward. The bill will not get a hearing by the Assembly Rules Committee before the July 14 deadline, though it could be taken up again in 2018. It passed the California Senate on June 1.
“Single payer” generally refers to health care systems in which the government pays doctors and other health providers using tax revenues, bypassing the use of private insurance companies as middlemen.
In some systems, the doctors work directly for the government, but the California bill proposes a variant in which doctors and hospitals remain private entities and establish contracts with the state to provide care. Full Article here.