AB 1400, authored by Assemblymember Ash Kalra, failed yesterday to meet the deadline to pass out of the Assembly. The bill would have created the single-payer healthcare system in California under a program called CalCare.

Western Growers was part of a large business coalition in strong opposition to this bill and was an early voice in opposition. The coalition worked tirelessly lobbying the Assembly to stop this bill because it would create an exorbitantly expensive new government bureaucracy that would likely lead to significant job loss. The estimated costs to establish a single-payer healthcare system range from $200 billion to $500 billion. For comparison, the proposed California state budget for 2022-2023 is $286.4 billion.

It is unclear if this proposal will be re-introduced in another bill this year. WG will continue to advocate strongly against single-payer healthcare.