Any form of government sponsored or mandated healthcare system is socialism and a financial disaster. Obamacare was America’s first real national socialist program that had more to do with socialism than with affordable healthcare. It was also Barack Obama’s way of trying to disguise tax hikes after promising to not raise taxes, as Obamacare contained 20 hidden taxes that hit the elderly and chronically ill the hardest and less able to afford it.

Canada has a national healthcare system and they are running into a great many financial problems. Great Britain has a national healthcare system that is in serious financial difficulty. Many British people have found that the government healthcare program is covering less while their taxes are costing more.

Venezuela is a socialist nation with a national healthcare system. Not only is their healthcare system in serious financial difficulty, but many Venezuelans have been crossing into neighboring Colombia to get medical treatment, especially pregnant women.

This is the paradox that congressional Republicans have found themselves in. How do they replace one failing socialist healthcare system with another that they hope doesn’t fail and won’t cost the American people an arm and a leg, physically and financially?

California Democrats believe they have the solution, but their solution is not only a step closer to socialism but is an absolute financial disaster for the state and the citizens of California. It’s called a single payer healthcare system. So, what is a single-payer healthcare system?

Here are two definitions that are based on a national level, but apply the same way to the state level:

“Single-payer national health insurance, also known as ‘Medicare for all,’ is a system in which a single public or quasi-public agency organizes health care financing, but the delivery of care remains largely in private hands. Under a single-payer system, all residents of the U.S. would be covered for all medically necessary services, including doctor, hospital, preventive, long-term care, mental health, reproductive health care, dental, vision, prescription drug and medical supply costs.”

Under the single-payer legislation in Congress (H.R. 676):

• Everyone would receive comprehensive healthcare coverage under single-payer;
• Care would be based on need, not on ability to pay;
• Employers would no longer be responsible for health care costs and coverage decisions;
• Single-payer would reduce costs by 24%, saving $829 billion in the first year by cutting administrative waste and allowing negotiation of prescription drugs; and
• Single-payer would create savings for 95% of the population. Only the top 5% would pay slightly more

California’s single-payer healthcare bill is SB 562. Why is it a financial disaster? The sponsors and supporters of the bill estimate it will cost the state about $400 billion a year. Considering the entire state budget is only $180 billion a year, it’s easy to do the math and see that it’s not financially feasible.

That math has not escaped the Republican opponents of the bill such as State Sen. Tom Berryhill who stated:

“We don’t have the money to pay for it. If we cut every single program and expense from the state budget and redirected that money to this bill, SB 562, we wouldn’t even cover half of the $400-billion price tag.”

Guess how Democrats plan on paying for SB 562? They figure they will be able to gather $200 billion being used to pay for current healthcare expenses at the state and local levels. That still leaves them about $200 billion short. Guess where that money will come from You guessed it, increased taxes.

Taxes are already pretty high in California, but they will have to more than double them in order to raise $200 billion a year. How many people can afford to pay two and a half to three times the amount of taxes they are already paying?

Many Democrats want a national single-payer healthcare plan. If you extrapolate that to a national single-payer healthcare plan, it would cost at least $3.21 TRILLION a year. The current federal budget for 2017 is only $3.65 trillion, so for a national single-payer healthcare system, the government would have to increase federal taxes across the board by at least twofold.

SB 562 was just passed by the California State Senate by a 23-14 vote. The California senate is composed of 27 Democrats and 13 Republicans. The bill now moves to the House where Democrats hold a 55 to 25 majority. Governor Jerry Brown is as liberal and gullible as any Democrat in California and would likely sign the bill if it passed the House and makes it to his desk. If so, look for the entire economy of California to collapse.