Health Policy and Promotion in Advanced Nursing

Ref: The Healthy California Act (SB-562)
This is to express my support for the above mentioned that you brought to the California
Senate together with Senator Atkins. The plan aims to offer universal single payer healthcare to
all Californians including undocumented immigrants following the push by the republicans to
repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Available data as analyzed by Gabel et al.
(2017) indicated that California had less cases of increasing premiums under the ACA and was
quite a good plan for them; and hence there need for an alternative in the face of its impending
repeal by the Trump administration.
It is notable that the bill was sponsored by the California Nurses Association, a reputable
lobby who understands the essence of a single payer healthcare system. As McCarthy (2017)
notes, the intended change is massive but attainable if pursued on an incremental basis. Further
evidence regarding the bill has been presented by Pollin et al. (2017) who used economic
modeling techniques to the conclusion that the system would save around 18% while reducing
net overall healthcare costs by 8%. Indeed, there is strong evidence that unlike popular
sentiment, the bill is realistic and can secure the health of Californians. Lots of opposition is
currently based on the misconceptions addressed by Liu & Brook (2017) on the definition of a

HEALTH POLICY AND PROMOTION 3
single payer system. If the bill was to be looked into from the broader perspective of single payer
designs, many would offer support.
I therefore second the bill and look forward to its operationalization after it was
successfully passed. I have no doubt it will transform lives and promote equity and access to
healthcare among Californians.

Yours faithfully
Student Name
California.

HEALTH POLICY AND PROMOTION 4

References

Gabel, J. R., Arnold, D. R., Fulton, B. D., Stromberg, S. T., Green, M., Whitmore, H., &
Scheffler, R. M. (2017). Consumers buy lower-cost plans on covered California,
suggesting exposure to premium increases is less than commonly reported. Health
Affairs, 36(1), 8-15.
Liu, J. L., & Brook, R. H. (2017). What is Single-Payer Health Care? A Review of Definitions
and Proposals in the US. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 1-10.
McCarthy, M. (2017). California considers plan to replace Obamacare. BMJ: British Medical
Journal (Online), 356.
Pollin, R., Heintz, J., Arno, P., & Wicks-Lim, J. (2017). Economic Analysis of the Healthy
California Single-Payer Health Care Proposal (SB-562).