California

California's Road To Single-Payer Ruin

http://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/californias-road-to-single-payer-ruin/

Excerpt: Socialized Health Care: Never let it be said that California doesn't march to the beat of a different drummer. While the rest of the country has had second, third and even fourth thoughts about having a single-payer health care system, the Golden State boldly marches forward into fiscal oblivion. As the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday, "A sweeping measure that would establish government-run universal health care in California cleared its first legislative hurdle Wednesday as scores of supporters crammed into the Capitol to advocate for a single-payer system." Let's unpack that sentence a bit. It's true that so-called State Bill 562 is "sweeping." It's so sweeping, in fact, that it would likely end the private health insurance business in the state and lead to fiscal bankruptcy. How's that for sweeping? And guess what? The measure covers illegal immigrants. So, if this bill is passed, California will turn into a massive medical magnet for sick people from Latin America and possibly even Asia. Why pay for health care in your home country when you can get it in California for free? Then there's that bit about clearing "its first legislative hurdle." That's not much of a hurdle, really. Thanks to a permanently gerrymandered political landscape and years of Democrats bending the rules to systematically disenfranchise all nonleft political alternatives, California is now a one-party state. Democrats, funded by their public-sector union allies, have total control of the legislature, universities, school systems, bureaucracy and courts. All of it. (California leads the way...But to exactly what is open to a lot of questions. They already have one of the highest tax levels in the country, and will now have to pile on another major jump to begin to pay for this idea. The consequences don't seem that difficult to foresee. This will really be interesting. --Del)