An effort to establish the first state-run single-payer healthcare system in the United States ended at the last minute after its author realized he lacked the votes to make it viable.
The bill, known as AB 1400, was scheduled to be brought before the California Assembly on Monday. Assemblyman Ash Kalra, who had authored the bill, decided to pull the proposal, noting that it did not have enough support to pass.
“Despite heavy opposition and substantial misinformation from those that stand to profit from our current healthcare system, we were able to ignite a realistic and achievable path toward single-payer and bring AB 1400 to the floor of the Assembly,” Kalra said in a statement. “However, it became clear that we did not have the votes necessary for passage, and I decided the best course of action is to not put AB 1400 for a vote today.”
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If AB 1400 had passed, it would have created a publicly financed healthcare system called CalCare that would, in theory, save the state money and make healthcare more accessible. One legislative analysis estimated that the system would have cost California between $314 and $391 billion a year, reported CalMatters.
The bill’s failure to pass is the second time in the last five years that a single-payer bill has died in the Assembly, reported the Los Angeles Times. In 2017, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon shelved a Senate bill favoring a single-payer plan, calling the proposal “woefully incomplete.”
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Kalra filed AB 1400 in February 2021 and has struggled to get traction due to a lack of details about how the plan would have been financed, according to the Los Angeles Times. Kalra introduced a second bill on Jan. 5 that would have introduced $163 billion in new taxes to pay for CalCare.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been a regular advocate of single-payer healthcare, having campaigned on the promise to implement single-payer healthcare in 2018. However, Newsom has not commented on Kalra’s bill to date. The governor is waiting on the Healthy California for All Commission to release a report regarding what a single-payer healthcare system would require.
