Single-Payer Healthcare Bill Dies in State Assembly

A bill seeking to cover every Californian with state-financed health insurance faced a Monday deadline to make it out of the state assembly. But just before it was set for a vote, Assembly Bill 1400 was withdrawn by its author, Democrat Ash Kalra. The bill would have made California the only state in the nation with a single-payer health care system if enacted. But some legislators balked at the cost of the system, known as CalCare, which had been estimated at between $314 billion and $391 billion per year. We’ll discuss the bill’s fate— and the future of single-payer healthcare in the state – with KQED’s April Dembosky.