State Senator Mark Leno speaks for SB 840, the California Single Payer Health Care bill

The most optimistic outcome, per Senator Leno, is that the bill could pass in 2011 if a Democrat is elected Governor, since the Governor has already vetoed it twice including last September. If passed, it would have to survive a big money ballot intiative to overturn by the insurance industry. Leno cites a Lucille Packard Hospital Foundation study published a couple of years ago that ranks health care for 21 industrialized nations on factors such as access, quality, cost, outcomes, life expectancy, and infant mortality. The U.S. is ranked 21st out of 21 in overall quality despite spending almost twice per capita what any of the other countries spend using Single Payer models. He has hired Shiela Kuehl's staff person who worked on that bill to continue doing working the necessary political work with the organizations promoting the bill.