January 27, 2022
California Federation of Republican Women
Janet Price, President
Submitted by the CFRW Legislative Analyst Committee
Karen Contreras, Gretchen Cox, Elaine Freeman,
Theresa Speake, and Cheryl Sullivan
Please share the following information with your club newsletters/websites! Comments/Questions?
E-mail: legislativeanalysts@cfrw.org
Governor Newsom’s budget speech spent much hurrah on his proposed universal health care for all, meaning that every person who lives in California would be covered, even the undocumented. Here is the proposed legislation, AB-1400, that would create the program. Last week’s article covered ACA-11 which is the funding mechanism for AB-1400. AB-1400 has come out of one committee and has been sent to the Appropriations Committee. Since this is a priority for the Governor, it will probably sail through.
AB-1400 – Guaranteed Health Care for All, also known as CalCare
CalCare would provide comprehensive universal single-payer health care coverage and a health care cost control system for the benefit of ALL residents of the State regardless of their legal status. This bill, among other things, would provide that CalCare cover a wide range of medical benefits. Other services would incorporate the health care benefits and standards of other existing services such as existing federal and state provisions, including the federal Children’s Health Insurance Program, Medi-Cal ancillary health care, or social services covered by regional centers for persons with developmental disabilities, Knox-Keene and the federal Medicare program.
The bill would require the governing body of the program to see all necessary waivers, approvals, and agreements to allow various existing federal health care payments (Medicare) to be paid to CalCare, which would then assume responsibility for all benefits and services previously paid for with these funds. This bill can pass with a simple majority and be sent to the Governor.
This bill will change the health care system in ways we can’t imagine. AB-1400 would prohibit a participating provider from billing or entering into a private contract with an individual eligible for CalCare benefits regarding a covered benefit. The Board would provide for the participation of health care providers in CalCare including the requirements of a participation agreement between health care provider and the board.
The CalCare board would be 9 members appointed by the legislature. In addition, there would be an appointed 11 member Advisory Commission to advise the Board on matters of policy related to long-term services and support. What is not clear is whether there would still be private insurance and IF health care providers have the choice to opt out of CalCare. If ACA-11 does not pass, then it appears AB-1400 would not be able to be implemented.
ACA-11 establishes new taxes on employers and employees as well as an annual excise tax upon a qualified business, for the privilege of doing business in CA, at a rate of 2.3% of gross receipts of that qualified business after the first two million dollars in annual gross receipts. In addition, an employer of 50 or more people would have a tax rate of 1.25% of the aggregate amount of wages or other compensation. In addition to the payroll tax, another payroll tax would be imposed on every employer who pays wages to employees working in or out of this state at a rate of 1% of the aggregate amount of wages paid over $49,000 annually. Those earning in excess of $149,509 would have yet an additional payroll tax starting at 0.5%. In order to fund CalCare, all federal monies for health care for Californians would be transferred to the state.
An example would be if a senior has Kaiser, Kaiser now gets their Medicare funds; with CalCare, those funds would shift from Kaiser to the state, meaning Kaiser would no longer be their health provider. The individual has no choices here.
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