Tom, Xavier & Katie All Support "Single Payer" Healthcare... So Full Government Control
My latest column for the California Post looks at what Tom Steyer, Katie Porter and Xavier Becerra are really endorsing when they say California needs “single-payer” health care…
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Single-Payer Means Government Control
The Word Sounds Harmless
“Single-payer” is one of those political phrases designed to sound clean, technical, and almost boring. It does not sound radical. It does not sound disruptive. It sounds like some kind of administrative adjustment — a cleaner way to process health care bills.
But that is the trick.
What California voters need to understand is that single-payer is not just a different way to describe health care coverage. It is a massive transfer of power away from private plans, employers, workers, unions, patients, and families — and toward state government.
That is why the slogan matters. When candidates say they support single-payer, they are not simply saying they want health care to be less expensive. Everyone wants that. They are saying they want the government to become the dominant financial gatekeeper for health care in California.
And once the government becomes the payer, the government becomes the power center.
That means decisions about costs, payments, coverage, access, taxes, and trade-offs do not disappear. They move. They move into Sacramento, into bureaucracy, into budget negotiations, into rate-setting fights, into political pressure campaigns, and ultimately onto taxpayers' backs.
Tom Steyer can talk about billionaires. Katie Porter can talk about corporations. Xavier Becerra can talk about expanding access. But the question voters should ask is simpler: who really pays when California builds a government-run health care system with a price tag larger than the entire state budget?
That is the part they do not lead with.
👉 Read my column in the California Post HERE. You will NOT BELIEVE how much it costs to do this - for even ONE year!