NewsNewsom to Introduce Universal Health Care Plan as Component of Bid for Governor
Current Lt. Governor and gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom is reportedly drafting a plan to create universal health care in the state as part of his platform for his campaign in 2018. Newsom’s ambitious plan to rein in rising health care costs, expand universal access to people across the state regardless of income or immigration status, and preserve coverage for the estimated 5 million Californians who risk losing their insurance under President Donald Trump’s changes is modeled after Healthy San Francisco, a universal care system that finances health care for residents within the city’s borders, created by then Mayor Newsom in 2007. It centers on the importance of primary care and routine checkups to help control costs; mandates that employers contribute to their employees’ health care; includes a citywide public insurance option; and adopted a provision even before Obamacare that people with pre-existing conditions can’t be disqualified for coverage by insurance companies. Newsom admits that not all of what San Francisco did can be replicated across the state – especially in more rural areas that lack the medical provider infrastructure, but the state can develop region-specific reforms to expand universal access.