As it turns out, the liberals in California have yet to learn this important lesson. On Friday, State Senator Ricardo Lara introduced legislation that would transition California’s healthcare into a single-payer system. (RELATED: Read what a retired colonel said about the real purpose of Obamacare). The system would be very similar to the healthcare system currently in place in Canada and would cost California taxpayers roughly $40 billion for the first year alone. Given the poor economic climate California has already created for itself, this will no doubt be just one more burden on the people of California, and one step closer towards total bankruptcy.
Micah Weinberg, the president of the Economic Institute at the Bay Area Council, raised concerns over the financial consequences of the proposed legislation. “Where are they going to come up with the $40 billion?” he asked. He went on to suggest that adopting a state level single-payer system is “just not feasible to do as a state.”
The Los Angeles Times has noted that a single-payer healthcare system has been a goal for California liberals for quite some time now. In both 2006 and 2008, bills were introduced to reform the state’s healthcare system but they were vetoed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Many California Progressives now blame the efforts of Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act for their renewed push to bring about statewide single-payer healthcare.
The problem, of course, is that single-payer healthcare doesn’t improve the quality and accessibility of care; it makes it all ten times worse. For proof, look no further than just north of our border, where Canadians have witnessed firsthand the devastating effects of government funded healthcare.
Of all 11 industrialized nations, Canada ranks last in its ability to provide citizens with same-day or next-day appointments with doctors. As a result of this harsh reality, many Canadians are increasingly traveling south into America to get the care that they need in a quick, efficient manner.
Such was the case with Sharon Shamblaw, a resident of Ontario who was diagnosed in the summer of 2015 with a form of blood cancer. The treatment was available to her at a Toronto hospital 100 miles away from her home, as well as in one of the three facilities inside of her province. The only problem was that each of these facilities had an eight-month waiting period for the particular type of stem cell transplant that Sharon needed.
Four months later, she finally decided to travel south to Buffalo, New York for her treatment. Sadly, Sharon was too late. She passed away at the age of 46, leaving behind her three children and her husband.
There are countless examples of this from different countries around the world. The long waiting times and poor quality care that occurs as a result of single-payer healthcare have terrible consequences not only for the well-being of the people living in these countries, but for the countries themselves. In a place like California, where the entire state economy is teetering on the brink of collapse, a transition into a single-payer system may very well be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
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