Single-Payer Proposal Returns to Legislature

Tuesday, February 17, 2026 | 0

A California lawmaker is gearing up for a third run at creating a single-payer health care system that once again would defer to an advisory board the question of how to handle medical treatment for workplace injuries.

Assemblymember Ash Kalra

Assemblymember Ash Kalra, D-San Jose, on Thursday introduced AB 1900, which would create the California Guaranteed Health Care for All program to provide comprehensive, universal single-payer health care coverage.

The bill would also create a nine-member board that would be tasked with organizing, administering, marketing and implementing the single-payer program. The board would also be responsible for developing a proposal to cover health care items and services currently provided through the workers' compensation system.

Kalra introduced similar bills in 2021 and 2024, neither of which passed out of the Assembly.

The California Workers' Compensation Institute, in a 2018 Spotlight Report, said the lack of co-pays, deductibles, lifetime limits, different dispute resolution and claim settlement processes, and the need to coordinate care and access to treatment for two distinctly different patient populations are among the issues that the board would be required to address in folding work comp into a single-payer system.