{"id":216408,"date":"2026-03-12T13:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T13:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/216408\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T13:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T13:21:08","slug":"federal-cuts-are-reviving-a-california-lawmakers-push-for-single-payer-health-care-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/216408\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal cuts are reviving a California lawmaker\u2019s push for single-payer health care"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article<\/a> was produced by Capital & Main. It is published here with permission.<\/p>\n

The latest set of health\u00a0care proposals from the Trump administration has done nothing but embolden a California lawmaker to continue swinging for the fences: the creation of a single-payer, state-run system of care that virtually removes health insurance companies from the mix.<\/p>\n

That idea is hardly a new one. In fact, the legislator, Assemblymember Ash Kalra, D-San Jose, has himself introduced or reintroduced a form of it four times over the past five years.<\/p>\n

Those proposals have made little headway in Sacramento. But here in 2026, with Congress already having approved massive cuts to federal Medicaid funding and President Donald Trump\u2019s staff pushing for further patient-hostile revisions to the Affordable Care Act, Kalra believes the time is right for another try \u2014 and another public discussion.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven what we\u2019re seeing from the federal administration, and with the intense scrutiny on both Medicaid and ACA cuts, the general public is more aware than ever that we have an unsustainable, dysfunctional health care system,\u201d Kalra told Capital & Main. \u201cThere\u2019s an awareness among the public and stakeholders that the status quo is unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kalra\u2019s latest legislative attempt at single payer,\u00a0Guaranteed Health Care for All<\/a>, is strictly procedural \u2014 a necessary first step. It would create CalCare, a universal form of health care administered by a state-run governing board and providing no-cost care at the point of service to all residents, regardless of their income or immigration status. (National versions of the concept are often known as Medicare for All.)<\/p>\n

Establishing the program is the first of scores if not hundreds of steps on a journey to single payer (or universal) health care. It would have to be approved by the state Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom or his successor before any serious discussion of funding the program could even begin.<\/p>\n

And it will face political headwinds that are utterly predictable, especially from the health insurance industry itself, one of the most powerful lobbies at the state Capitol.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut everything else, short of a systemic change, is playing around the edges, and in some ways just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic,\u201d Kalra said. \u201cWe have to make a change, and that will take several years to do. Every year we delay, lives are lost, families go into bankruptcy, and more and more Californians are stretched thin because of health care costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Major cuts to federal funding<\/p>\n

Nearly\u00a0$1 trillion in Medicaid\u00a0federal funding\u00a0was slashed<\/a>\u00a0as part of the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill, passed in 2025. That has come as a blow to California, whose Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal, covers more than a third of the state\u2019s population \u2014 about 15 million people. The state stands to lose roughly\u00a0$30 billion every year<\/a>\u00a0in Medi-Cal funding over the next decade as a result, with no obvious state funding remedy in sight.<\/p>\n

On top of that, the Republican-led Congress in January refused to extend federal tax credits that had enabled millions of Americans to buy health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace. With monthly premiums spiking, new enrollment in Covered California is already\u00a0down 32%<\/a>\u00a0from last year, the ACA state agency said last week.<\/p>\n

Now, Trump\u2019s Department of Health and Human Services has proposed\u00a0new rules<\/a>\u00a0that would place even higher financial burdens on those Obamacare-purchased plans \u2014 in some cases, by allowing health insurance companies to sell policies that force families to\u00a0pay up to $31,000 a year<\/a>\u00a0out of their pockets before any insurance actually kicks in.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe root cause of the affordability crisis is that the underlying cost of health care continues to grow unchecked year after year,\u201d said Kristof Stremikis, director of market analysis and insight for the California Health Care Foundation. \u201cThese proposals do nothing to address that, and simply shift the burden onto the patients least able to bear it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new HHS rules, which would become effective in 2027, let insurers offer the kinds of \u201cskinny\u201d policies that President Barack Obama\u2019s administration outlawed in the early years of the ACA. The policies come with lower premiums than what\u2019s currently on the marketplace, but they\u2019d force individuals and families to pay far more in deductibles than ever before.<\/p>\n

Trump, in his State of the Union address, blamed rising health care costs on the ACA itself. He advocated a plan under which insurers would pay patients a fixed amount of money for certain services, leaving the patients or families to then shop for medical care or procedures themselves rather than be part of a health system.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd families do what we know families do, right? They either find other ways to get that money [to pay], or they skimp and make decisions that they would rather not,\u201d said Mike Odeh, senior director of health policy at the California-based policy advocacy group Children Now.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis watering down of policies and networks worries me, and so does putting more financial risk onto families,\u201d Odeh added. \u201cThey\u2019re also facing increased costs for housing, utilities, food, transportation \u2014 all the things. And with health care, you don\u2019t always know that you\u2019ll need something until you need it, especially with kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

A long shot<\/p>\n

Kalra, who has served\u00a0in the Assembly since 2016, hears and feels all of that. The first Indian American to serve in the California Legislature, he has carried the idea of a universal health care system for years and dealt with plenty of disappointing results in his efforts to elevate the idea.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not na\u00efve about the odds. It\u2019s a long shot.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, we know Republicans won\u2019t support it, because they\u2019re completely beholden to these corporations and billionaires that profit wildly off our current health care system,\u201d Kalra said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But it also isn\u2019t clear that he\u2019ll have enough support among Democrats when it comes to overhauling a health care system that, while clearly bloated and dysfunctional, is going to be difficult to dislodge. But Kalra is proceeding on two beliefs: that CalCare is the kind of program California actually needs; and that the discussion around the topic needs to happen in public, including on the Assembly and state Senate floors.<\/p>\n

A recent poll commissioned for the California Nurses Association found that nearly\u00a0two-thirds of Californians<\/a>\u00a0felt the state needs \u201cmajor reforms\u201d to its health care system, and 86% of Democrats supported a proposal for single-payer. The CNA is sponsoring Kalra\u2019s bill. (Disclosure: The union is a financial supporter of Capital & Main.)<\/p>\n

Financing a program that could cost hundreds of billions of dollars a year is a different question. It involves securing waivers to use federal money to build it out, and that process cannot begin until a state actually passes a bill to create a state-run health care system. Several states have introduced such legislation over the past few years, including New York and Oregon, but none has yet passed a plan.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a reason: It\u2019s incredibly complicated. But to Kalra, the alternative is untenable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe current system is getting worse,\u201d he said. \u201cHaving this conversation is about more than just keeping it in the limelight. We actually need to change hearts and minds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Capital & Main<\/a> is an award-winning nonprofit publication that reports from California on the most pressing economic, environmental and social issues of our time, including economic inequality, climate change, health care, threats to democracy, hate and extremism and immigration.\u200b<\/p>\n

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