Apparently casting about for more opportunities to destroy itself, California is apparently considering going to a full bore, government-Run single payer system as adheres in countries such as Canada and Great Britain as Obamacare collapses. Several problems exist for this scheme, not the least of which is the fact that the state will need $40 billion more a year to even pretend to make it work. That fact is the case even after a hefty tax increase and an effort to pool everyone into a single system.
Analyses of various government run health care schemes in other countries abound, from the inordinate wait times for procedures in Canada to the “Death Panels” in Great Britain.
One example of a government run health care system in the United States, the one run by the Veterans’ Affair Department, has become an ongoing scandal with veterans being placed on waiting lists until they die from lack of care or kill themselves out of despair. Not giving people health care until they die is one way to cut health care costs, but it is not something that looks good on cable news TV.
One suspects that if government run health care is ever enacted in California, the rich and powerful will find a way to exempt themselves. No Hollywood actor or Silicon Valley tech billionaire is going to wait his turn for a heart procedure or cancer treatment. Either they will be able to pay cash for medical treatments in California in a parallel system that the common folk will not be able to access or they will hop on their private jets and fly to a state where they can get health care, say Texas.
Look for clinics to rise up in bordering states, such as Nevada, for desperate Californians to go as they wait months for treatments. Hospitals and clinics on the Canadian border make a booming business for folks in that country unwilling to wait their turn.
California is in the hands of crazy people who, unfortunately, keep being reelected by the voters who seem to like being abused by their state government. Can President Trump save the state before the inevitable collapse occurs? The lives of millions may reside in the balance.
