Keith Ensminger: California’s single-payer care could lead the nation to a solution

The conservative case for universal health insurance means liberals must accept Medicaid, which is a welfare program trapping people in poverty and where the underground economy becomes their only path to economic prosperity. Single-payer financing through Social Security not single-payer. Canada and Taiwan operate like traditional Medicare. France, Japan and Germany look like Medicare Advantage, self-insured but through quasi-governmental insurance funds like schools, irrigation districts, utilities or credit unions. Britain is like the Veterans Administration.

The key is a system where the CEO and the janitor cleaning the office have equal access to the medical community just as public education provides their kids or Medicare provides for their parents. A recent survey from Small Business California shows solid support for a public insurance, especially if it includes the medical portion of worker’s compensation. We still have time to get it right and create a dignified insurance system where risk is distributed by ability to pay. Public health and economic opportunity improve when health insurance is shared broadly across society and where no one is required to remain poor or limit their income for medical care. California can lead the nation with the Healthy California Act, SB 562.

This story was originally published March 30, 2017 at 11:35 AM with the headline "Keith Ensminger: California’s single-payer care could lead the nation to a solution."