California Senate Panel Advances Legislation To Establish Single-Payer Health Care System

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—The California legislature is poised to consider again a single-payer health coverage system.

The Senate Appropriations Committee Jan. 19 approved S.B. 810, the California Universal Health Care Act. The bill, from state Sen. Mark Leno (D), now goes to the Senate floor. Because S.B. 810 is a two-year bill that was first introduced last year, the Senate must pass it by Jan. 31 or it will expire.

In his testimony before the Appropriations Committee on Jan. 17, Leno said that, in 2006 and 2008, the legislature passed universal health care bills, only to have them vetoed by then-Gov. ...