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Assembly members this afternoon will vote on Assembly Bill 1400, which would eliminate private healthcare in California and replace it with a state-owned single payer system.
If enacted, the changes would make California the only state in the nation with a single-payer health care system. The specifics of the system, like financing, will be introduced in a separate bill in the coming months. The bill would create a universal health care system and set the guidelines for how it is enacted, but does not yet outline the cost model or how it will be paid for. There's a separate bill that would do that, which has a different deadline and does not have to pass on Monday. However, the estimates say this will be costly for the state - the latest projection saying it would cost taxpayers at least $356.5 billion per year to pay for the health care of almost 40 million residents. California's total operating budget — which pays for public schools, courts, roads and bridges and other important services — is roughly $262 billion this year.
A legislative analysis estimates the cost of single-payer could be between $314 billion and $391 billion each year. If no vote is reached today, the bill dies.