Letters to the Editor: If Canada can have single-payer healthcare, so can California

Including Editorial from HC4US.org’s own James Sarantinos
February 28, 2024
 
To the editor: Rivas is disingenuous in his claim that the state can’t afford a single-payer healthcare system in the face of spiraling budget deficits.
 
Such a system will generate considerable cost savings through the removal of multi-payer administrative bloat, savings on bulk negotiations and purchases, stopping unregulated price increases, and focusing on preventive care and early treatment. The removal of health insurance premiums and other out-of-pocket expenses will easily offset any tax increases.
 
The time for Assembly Bill 2200, a prudent salve for our finances and health, is now.
 
James Sarantinos, Los Angeles
 
 
 
Letters to the Editor: California Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister), who has cast doubt on the viability of a single-payer healthcare bill, cannot be unaware that our neighbors to the north have had a well-functioning single-payer system since 1971. Their drugs are much cheaper than ours, and their population is healthier because of it.
 
The simple act of Googling “how Canada got single-payer healthcare” could help Rivas and other state legislators understand that not only is it possible to adopt such a system in California, but also that many other industrialized nations have already done it.
 
The insurance industry does not heal; it simply sucks revenue out of our pockets to make a profit. Doctors are sick of it too.
 
So, Mr. Speaker, please muster the courage to get this bill to the governor’s desk.
 
Sylvia Hampton, Los Angeles
 
 
 
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