Michael Hiltzik: California confronts the complexities of creating a single-payer health care system
California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon may have expected to torpedo the idea of a statewide single-payer health care system for the long term last June, when he blocked a Senate bill on the issue from even receiving a hearing in his house.
He was wrong, of course. His shelving of the Senate bill created a political uproar (including the threat of a recall effort), forcing him to create a special committee to examine the possibility of achieving universal health coverage in the state. On Monday and Wednesday, the Select Committee on Health Care Delivery Systems and Universal Coverage held its final hearings.
The panel ended up where it started, with the recognition that the project is hellishly complex and politically daunting but still worthwhile - yet can't happen overnight. "I'm anxious to see what it is that we can actually be working on this year," committee Co-Chair
