March 2022

UPDATE ON A SINGLE HEALTH PAYER PLAN

A single-payer health care system died last month in the legislature.  The cost estimate from the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office was between $494 Billion and $552 Billion annually.  Committee staffers had a much lower cost estimate: $314 Billion to $391 Billion.

The Legislative Analyst’s estimate also included some other costs.

CalCare which is what a single payer system would be called would easily require tens of billions of dollars to set up and also require “years of planning and resources,” including securing approval from the federal government. 

Even with new tax hikes to pay for CalCare, California would still face an estimated annual funding shortfall of between $70 Billion and $193 Billion.  The costs to run CalCare would likely grow by at least $20 Billion to $30 Billion annually.