{"id":662847,"date":"2026-05-24T20:02:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T20:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/662847\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T20:02:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T20:02:15","slug":"in-governors-race-xavier-becerra-backs-away-from-single-payer-healthcare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/662847\/","title":{"rendered":"In governor’s race, Xavier Becerra backs away from single payer healthcare"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Xavier<\/a>Gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra. (Photo courtesy of his campaign)<\/p>\n

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

One of the most notable\u00a0retrenchments of California Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s early years in office was his backing away from the idea of a \u201csingle payer\u201d form of health care, a cause he loudly championed as a candidate that won him the endorsement of the most powerful nurses\u2019 union in the state.<\/p>\n

Now,\u00a0leading<\/a>\u00a0Democratic gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra, once Newsom\u2019s attorney general, secretary of Health and Human Services under President Joe Biden and himself a longtime proponent of single payer, appears to be following the same path.<\/p>\n

One difference: Becerra has made his break from single payer prior to the election, not after it.<\/p>\n

In some ways, that is a straight pragmatic decision. Even single payer\u2019s most ardent supporters \u2014 including Assemblymember Ash Kalra (D-San Jose), who has introduced\u00a0multiple bills<\/a>\u00a0to the state Legislature on the topic \u2014 acknowledge the process is likely to take years and outlast any single governor\u2019s tenure.<\/p>\n

Still, it\u2019s a significant policy shift for Becerra, a 12-term U.S. congressman who by his own account has for decades backed single-payer plans, in which a government-created agency is responsible for coordinating health care for all residents, with no premiums, co-pays or deductibles.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince my early years in Congress, I have been an advocate for single payer,\u201d Becerra said in a statement on a campaign website that since has been replaced with a\u00a012-point plan<\/a>\u00a0for health care in California.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I believe single payer is possible, I believe we also need to pursue immediate wins,\u201d the candidate added. \u201cWe can deliver real relief now, while building toward a universal, single-payer CalCare system that puts people before profits.\u201d<\/p>\n

At a time when President Donald Trump and the GOP-led Congress are gutting both Medicaid (known as Medi-Cal in California) and food assistance programs, lower-income Californians will take all the relief they can find. But under a Becerra administration, a truly revolutionary idea like single payer is going to wait.<\/p>\n

Newsom ran his campaign\u00a0for governor in 2018 by touting several progressive themes, including universal preschool and heightened environmental regulations. But it was his embrace of single-payer health care that won him the endorsement of the powerful California Nurses Association\/National Nurses United, which represents more than 100,000 caregivers in the state. (Disclosure: The union is a financial supporter of Capital & Main.)<\/p>\n

Once in office, though, Newsom almost immediately began backing away from single payer, instead pushing incremental changes to programs like Medi-Cal. (Under heavy budget pressure, Newsom ultimately reversed some of those changes, including freezing California\u2019s enrollment of undocumented adults in the state.)<\/p>\n

Becerra is following suit. In a candidate meeting with doctors from the California Medical Association this spring, \u201cHe said very clearly that, at this point, he wasn\u2019t supportive of single payer,\u201d CMA president Dr. Rene Bravo told the Bay Area public media outlet KQED.<\/p>\n

That stance won Becerra the endorsement of the CMA, whose doctors oppose any single-payer system. The nurses union, meanwhile, has thrown its support behind billionaire Tom Steyer, a\u00a0full proponent of single payer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cNurses have been fighting to win guaranteed, single-payer health care for decades: at the state level with CalCare, and at the federal level with Medicare for All,\u201d CNA president Sandy Reding\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0in a statement endorsing Steyer. \u201cTom Steyer stands with us in that fight. He understands incrementalism won\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aides to Becerra said his position is nuanced, but that a standalone system of single payer in California won\u2019t make progress in the current political atmosphere in Washington. Such a system would rely in part on the federal government allowing Medicaid and Medicare funds to be reallocated into the new program, and the Trump-directed agencies involved wouldn\u2019t do that, they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSingle payer is the right goal, but we need to be realistic about what\u2019s possible under the Trump Administration,\u201d Jonathan Underland, a spokesperson for the Becerra campaign, told Capital & Main in response to questions about the candidate\u2019s position. \u201cThis president has slashed Medi-Cal to the bone, handing tax breaks to billionaires while 3 million Californians risk losing their coverage.\u201d<\/p>\n

As HHS secretary under Biden,\u00a0Becerra directed the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which included extended subsidies that swelled enrollment in health plans through the Affordable Care Act. He also oversaw updates in 2023 that permanently allowed the oral contraceptive mifepristone to be prescribed via telehealth and delivered by mail.<\/p>\n

Becerra\u2019s approach to health care if elected governor appears to focus on boosting preventive care and allocating state funds to maintain support for people whose coverage is threatened by federal cuts to Medi-Cal and CalFresh, the state\u2019s food assistance program.<\/p>\n

The candidate said he would issue an executive order on his first day in office \u201cdirecting state agencies to maintain coverage continuity for every Californian affected by federal cuts or Medi-Cal rollbacks,\u201d according to the plan posted to his website. The federal cuts are expected to reduce Medi-Cal funding by as much as\u00a0$30 billion a year<\/a>. Becerra\u2019s plan does not explain how the state would pay to preserve coverage.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Becerra wants the state to invest more heavily in primary care, and to expand both telehealth services and the CalRx program, through which the state either produces its own drugs or uses its buying power to negotiate lower costs from pharmaceutical companies. He also said he would move to slap fees on large companies that don\u2019t offer health care to their employees whose wages are so low they qualify for Medi-Cal, \u201cso that corporations who shift their health care costs onto taxpayers pay their fair share.\u201d<\/p>\n

The candidate also is proposing a dedicated state fund to grow California\u2019s health care workforce. The fund would include money to help individual providers and caregivers repay loans, get housing assistance in \u201chigh-cost\u201d areas, and target incentives for primary care, women\u2019s care, rural medicine, behavioral health and dentistry.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecerra\u2019s commitment is simple: expanding affordable coverage to everyone who needs it, and protecting Californians who are losing care because of Trump\u2019s cuts,\u201d said Underland.<\/p>\n

All of that work is incremental. None of it packs the punch \u2014 or the complexity \u2014 of starting down the road toward a single-payer plan.<\/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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