Cal. Health & Safety Code § 1000
Unified Health Care Financing System
Redline — January 1, 2017 → current.View current text →
Current — January 1, 2023
As of January 1, 2017
(a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(1) Health care is a human right and it is in the public interest that all Californians have access to health care that improves health outcomes, manages and lowers health care costs for the state and its residents, and reduces health disparities.
(2) With the implementation of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111-148) and other state efforts, California has reduced the uninsured share of its population to less than 10 percent.
(3) As of 2016, nearly three million Californians remained uninsured, 21 percent of Californians remained underinsured, and 11 percent of California adults went without health care because of cost.
(4) The United States spends more per capita than any other industrialized nation on health care, but has low rankings based on many metrics, including access to care, equity, efficiency, and healthy lives.
(5) California has a primary care physician shortage, and the geographic distribution of physicians across California is uneven.
(6) According to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, national health spending is projected to grow 5.5 percent annually, on average, through 2026, representing 19.7 percent of the economy in 2026.
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.
(c) It is the intent of the Legislature to control health care costs so that California is able to achieve a sustainable health care system with more equitable access to quality health care.
(d) It is the intent of the Legislature that rising health care costs be mitigated and administrative costs be limited so that more money is spent on direct care to patients and less on profits and overhead.
(e) It is the intent of the Legislature that all Californians receive high-quality health care, with positive health care outcomes, regardless of age, income, race, ethnicity, immigration status, gender or gender nonconforming status, sexual orientation, geographic location, health status, or ability.
(f) It is the intent of the Legislature that all Californians have access to affordable health coverage, including health coverage with reasonable out-of-pocket costs relative to household income, or being eligible for appropriate cost-sharing assistance.
(g) It is the intent of the Legislature that California train and employ an adequate number of primary care physicians, specialty care physicians, mental and behavioral health professionals, and allied health care professionals to meet the health care needs of the state.
(h) It is the intent of the Legislature that the health care system ensure that all Californians have timely access to necessary health care, including access that addresses language and geographic barriers.
(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.
Official source: California Legislative Information. Reproduced from public-domain California statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.