Legislation to Dismantle CA Healthcare System Moves to Assembly Floor

This week (Jan. 19) the Assembly Appropriations Committee approved AB 1400 (Kalra), a sweeping piece of legislation proposing a completely government-run healthcare system for California that would cost taxpayers an estimated $365.5 billion per year. The Council-opposed bill now moves to the Assembly floor. In a sign of the times, AB 1400’s author waived his opportunity for a public hearing, and the committee did not take a single piece of testimony before moving the bill forward.

The Bay Area Council was an outlier among business groups in supporting reforms to the Affordable Care Act, and we have long advocated for improvements in quality, access, and outcomes in our healthcare system. But replacing a free-market system with a government-run program isn’t the right approach.

As Council Vice President Patrick Kallerman recently told local outlets: “We’re opposed to AB 1400 because it would upend our healthcare system in a way that would take decades to rebuild, including eliminating the very popular Medicare and Medicaid (Medi-Cal) programs from California, all the hard-won gains we’ve made in implementing the Affordable Care Act, and make the state the sole responsible party for administering the healthcare of 40 million citizens and a fifth of our economy.”