KTXL reports that a rally was held in Sacramento, California Wednesday by proponents of a bill that would create a one payer health care system.
Participants included health care unions and patients.
Dr. Paul Song told KTXL, “If we make the system more efficient by having one payer, we can save billions of billions of dollars a year. Plus, we don’t really need to put any more money in - the money is there.”
Bill co-author Senator Toni Atkins of San Diego says Californians shouldn’t have Washington dictate how healthcare is provided to its citizens.
She tells KTXL, now that Californians have had the Affordable Care Act, it has given them a taste of what is possible.
“We don’t want to go back. We expect that there is a role for government to help make sure we all have access to healthcare and coverage.”
According to the Mercury News, Atkins’ bill would include covering illegal aliens in the Golden State.
Gov. Jerry Brown has declined to comment on the measure, but he has supported a single-payer system in the past.
A universal healthcare bill was passed by the California legislature in 2006 after a complex compromise was negotiated with health care advocates, doctors, insurance companies and drug interests.
Almost no one embraced the compromise in its entirety and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed it.
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