Twenty-two ways to ease California health insurance bills are up for debate in the Capitol
By Deepa Bharath, Michael Finch II, Sophia Bollag and Sammy Caiola
. . . Twenty-two bills before the Legislature this year aim to make health care more affordable and accessible. It seems almost certain that some of them will pass. But even though all the bills are heading in the same direction, there are competing visions of what a health care expansion should look like in 2019.
In January, Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled his proposals. They include imposing an individual mandate that would penalize people for not carrying insurance; this would replace the federal mandate that was repealed when Congress enacted tax reform . . .
Not everyone is a fan of the state’s ambition to expand coverage. Sally Pipes, president of the conservative Pacific Research Institute in California, criticized the legislative effort.
“For me, it’s very, very worrying,” she said. “These moves are, in my mind, stepping stones to a government takeover of heath care.”
