Moderate state Demos nix Ash Kalra's radical single-payer health care bill

Despite the fact that Democrats have a supermajority in the California state legislature, local Assemblyman Ash Kalra was unable to get enough votes to advance his radical government-funded universal health care bill for the State. Moderate Democrats and the handful of remaining Republicans in the chamber rejected the bill as too radical, too expensive, and too likely to fail. KSBW and The Hill report

While the measure would have created a universal health care system and set its rules, it did not say how much that system would cost or how the government would pay for it. Democrats had filed another bill that would impose hefty new taxes on businesses and individuals, hoping to separate the two issues.
Still, debate about the bill had been dominated by costs. A study of a 2017 proposal in California estimated it would cost $331 billion, which is about $356 billion today when adjusted for inflation.

California’s total operating budget - which pays for public schools, courts, roads and bridges and other important services - is roughly $262 billion this year.

The Hill also reported:

Democrats and Republicans in the California state Assembly opposed the bill due to having too many unknowns, such the cost and how it would affect retirees and medical workers.

The bill was also opposed by business organizations such as the California Chamber of Commerce. Preston Young, president of the organization, said at the time, "It is not a time to experiment with a brand new, state-run bureaucracy funded by unsustainable taxes placed on employers trying to survive a pandemic."

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Image by Lester Graham.