The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) Established by the Governor and the Legislature, the Healthy California for All Commission endorsed a system of unified health care financing that is accessible, affordable, equitable, high quality, and universal.
(b) The commission described the present health care system as one that is fragmented, wasteful, and disproportionately harmful to low-income Californians and communities of color and provided the rationale for a new single, government-administered funding system.
(c) The commission found that a unified financing system would create significant opportunities to deliver health care more effectively, efficiently, and equitably.
(d) California could save more than five hundred billion dollars ($500,000,000,000) over the next decade if a unified health care financing system is implemented, with overall costs lower even after most of those savings go to minimize consumer cost sharing and expand long-term care supports and services to all Californians.
(e) The report by the commission calls for the elimination of corporate profitmaking as the basis of health care decisions.
(f) The magnitude of the change from the status quo in cost savings and positive impact on Californians’ access to health care services that the commission contemplates represents a profound breakthrough in health policy and would establish California as the nation’s leader in pursuing health equity.
(g) Federal engagement is critical to the process of developing the framework for a waiver that would provide program approval and full federal financial participation in a unified health care financing system for California.
(h) The commission’s recommendations for a health care system with unified financing that guarantees all Californians the benefit of a standard, comprehensive package of health care services points the way toward better care at lower cost for our state’s residents.
(i) Based on these findings, the Legislature endorses a health care system with unified financing, such as a single-payer health care system, to provide accessible, affordable, equitable, and high-quality health care for all Californians.
(Added by Stats. 2023, Ch. 412, Sec. 1. (SB 770) Effective January 1, 2024.)