Health care bill’s failure exposes how weak California’s Democratic supermajority really is
California’s latest attempt at creating a single-payer health care system ended in spectacularly underwhelming fashion on Monday, but the outcome and way it played out was familiar for a modern political party that’s allergic to its own platform.
The demise of Assembly Bill 1400, the integral first piece in a legislative package to create a state-funded guaranteed health care system called CalCare, was more about the failings of the Democratic Party than the politics of establishing health care as a human right.
Even with 56 Democrats in the 80-member Assembly, in a state where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-to-1 and the current governor ran on a single-payer platform, this week California’s supermajority displayed a comical level of ineptitude by failing to advance AB 1400 to the senate.
State Assemblyman Ash Kalra, D-San Jose, didn’t bring his bill to a floor vote because “it became clear we did not have the votes necessary for passage,” he said in a statement. Even with the support of Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, who opposed the last single-payer bill in 2017, Kalra tried to justify the non-vote on a Zoom call with his disappointed supporters.
“I don’t believe it would have served the cause of getting single-payer done by having the vote and having it go down in flames and further alienating members,” Kalra said.
Progressives threatened to withdraw endorsements from lawmakers who opposed the bill — a tactic which may have backfired since not holding a vote let all the cold feet exit the Capitol without an ounce of accountability or transparency for Californians who want to be judicious with their support in an election year. If the bill gets revived in the next session, there is no way to know which legislators require convincing.
As much as the failure of AB 1400 represents the ongoing challenges of achieving guaranteed health care, such as corporate influence, misinformation and partisanship, it also exposes the Democratic Party’s bizarre indifference to its own agenda.
Democrats, and the people this party pushes to the highest offices, have no idea how to wield power. They gaslight their base with promises and important policy proposals but routinely fail to deliver. Whether it’s health care access, gun control or police reforms, Democrats skillfully avoid enacting popular policies yet retain office largely by being not Republican.
If California can’t use a supermajority to be a national leader for Democratic policies, no one should be surprised that having the White House and a thin advantage in Congress isn’t enough to protect voting rights or pass legislation to ward off climate catastrophe. At this point, to act or show leadership would be unusual.
The party that preaches equality and acknowledges societal privileges is just as effective as Republicans at denying equality and asserting its privilege — because that’s what a non-vote on guaranteed health care means at the end of the second year of a pandemic. Waiting another five years for another attempt isn’t an option for the 3.2 million people in California who lack health insurance.
If California leaders can’t elevate this discussion past the lowest house in the Legislature, let’s be honest about the pitfalls of the Democratic supermajority. Its might is an illusion, its promises are performative and its ability to deliver anything meaningful for the vast majority of Californians who support the Democratic agenda is a fantasy.