California Poised to Fully Socialize Medicine

     California seems finally poised to eliminate all healthcare insurance systems to be replace by… the state’s bureaucratic overlords:

“The Healthy California Act, co-authored by Sen. Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, was submitted just before the deadline for new legislation. It doesn’t yet offer many specifics other than the lawmakers’ intent: to create a so-called single-payer system that would pay for coverage for everyone.

“Proponents argue that single-payer systems make health care more affordable and efficient because they eliminate the need for reams of paperwork, but opponents say they raise taxpayer costs and give government too much power.”

     Because California bureaucracy is known for eschewing paperwork and regulations…

“Anna Johnson, whose school-age daughter has a chronic heart condition, put her feelings about insurers more bluntly:

“‘Cut them out. They’re not good at it. They cause families like ours headaches. Just cut them out.'”

     And the state government isn’t???

     There is a reason that companies and individuals who can escape California, are.

     The arguments for the measure are, at best, pie-in-the-sky:

• Every California resident has one plan and more choice.
• No more plan-switching or guesswork when insurance rates or plans change.
• You pick your doctor, not health insurers
• Clinicians make decisions about care, not computers
• By pooling health care funds in a publicly-run fund we get the bargaining power of the seventh largest economy.
• We cut out insurance company waste and duplication
• No more out of control co-pays and high deductibles
• Public oversight on costs and care, not decisions made in secret
• Managing prescription drug costs

     All of these claims have been readily smacked down:

• With no choice, there is no competition, unless you are wealthy enough to leave the state for medical care. However, this is a golden opportunity for medical tourism companies!
• There will be a limited supply of doctors, as those who don’t want to go through the bureaucratic hoops for procedures and payment will also leave the state.
• Clinicians will be forced to make their treatment decisions based on the state-run rules: Why choose surgery when a pill will do?
• Shockingly, some funds need to be directed to other budget items instead of perks for illegal aliens (refer to Oroville Dam for a handy reference).
• Medicare, the system that is the foundation for this proposal, is rife with waste, fraud and abuse (e.g., 3 Floridians bilked the system for $1 billion).
• Co-pays and deductibles will be transformed into monies paid for non-state government healthcare services (like the Canadians who cross into the United States to obtain MRI’s and other innovative treatments).
• Public oversight will translate into political wheeling-and-dealing strictly for the benefit of those plugged into the rigged system. An indication that Sacramento may be headed for such a system, I offer this piece published in The Sacramento Bee for consideration: Why California must accept more corruption.
• The cost of drugs has soared, despite Obamacare. As an example, I had a skin medication that would cost me $150 for an annual supply. The same medication now costs nearly $1000 a year, and I no longer use it.

     California is sooo DOOMED.

Tweet