Assembly Speaker Puts Brakes on Unfunded Universal Health Care Bill

Wednesday, June 28, 2017 | 0

Efforts to create a universal health care system in California were delayed when the Assembly speaker said he is holding the bill in the lower chamber’s Rules Committee.

Assembly Speaker
Anthony Rendon

Senate Bill 562, by Sens. Ricardo Lara, D- Bell Gardens, and Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, would have created the “Healthy California” program to provide medical care for all state residents, without co-pays or deductibles. A fiscal analysis released in May said the bill would cost about $400 billion a year — more than double the amount of the $183 billion state budget the governor signed Tuesday — and critics said the bill didn’t include any funding mechanism.

The Sacramento Bee on Tuesday reported that Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood, said he supports universal health care but the bill “didn’t make any sense.” He said he would hold the bill in committee — essentially carrying it over until the 2018 legislative session — and he hopes lawmakers in the Senate use the time “to take the bill more seriously than they did before.”

Rendon told the Bee the measure seemed more like a “statement of principles” than it did a serious public policy proposal.

And, he said his decision to hold the bill was motivated in part by threats levied by supporters including the California Nurses Association and self-described “Berniecrats” who said they’d lead primary battles against any lawmakers who don’t support the measure.

The Bee reported those threats may have worked in the Senate, which passed the bill 23-14 on June 1, but Rendon said it ultimately expedited the death of the bill in the lower chamber.