Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
California Lawmakers Kill Landmark Single-Payer Health Care Bill
Los Angeles Times: Single-Payer Healthcare Bill Dies In California Assembly
Lawmakers declined to vote on a high-profile effort to overhaul California’s healthcare system on Monday, putting an end to a proposal that would have guaranteed medical coverage to every resident by levying billions in new taxes. Assembly Bill 1400 by Assemblyman Ash Kalra (D-San Jose) did not have the necessary votes to move forward ahead of a key deadline Monday. Instead of forcing a vote that could be politically damaging for some of his Democratic colleagues, Kalra opted to let the bill die, angering the California Nurses Assn. that has championed single-payer for years. (Gutierrez, 1/31)
The Wall Street Journal: California Single-Payer Healthcare Plan Shelved At Last Minute
A bill that would have established the first single-payer healthcare system in the U.S. was pulled from consideration hours before a planned vote in the California Assembly Monday after its author concluded there wasn’t enough support for it to pass. The bill would have eliminated most private insurance in the nation’s most populous state in favor of a system called CalCare that would cover all residents, regardless of income or immigration status. A companion bill to fund the program, which now won’t be voted on, would have raised an estimated $163 billion from increased payroll taxes and income taxes on the wealthy, as well as a tax on gross receipts for certain businesses. (Mai-Duc, 1/31)
In other health news from California —
AP: California Moves To Toughen State's Nursing Home Oversight
California lawmakers on Monday moved to strengthen the state’s oversight of nursing homes, barring anyone from operating a skilled nursing facility without a license. Democratic Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi said his bill would give the California Department of Public Health stronger authority to block unqualified and unethical owners by shutting down what he said is an increasing number of for-profit nursing home chains operating unlicensed nursing homes. (Thompson, 1/31)
Los Angeles Times: California Moves Forward On Plans To Shut Down Death Row
Nearly three years after Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order that halted executions in California, the state is accelerating an effort to move incarcerated people off death row and into other prisons. California voters in 2016 approved Proposition 66, an initiative to speed up executions in the state’s complicated death row system. Another provision of the ballot measure allowed for death row inmates to be housed in other prisons, where they are required to work and pay 70% of their income to registered victims. (Wiley and Winton, 1/31)
