Ady Barkan, a 38-year-old married father of two, was diagnosed with ALS six years

ago and now is mostly paralyzed. He testified at Tuesday’s hearing with the help of
a computerized voice that spoke as he typed using technology that followed the
movement of his eyes. Barkan said he has battled his private insurance carrier to
get treatment he needed, including suing them to get a ventilator that keeps him
alive.

“Even good health insurance, which I have, does not cover the cost of the care I
need to survive,” he said.

To pay for everything, Democrats have introduced a separate bill that would raise
taxes on businesses and individuals by about $163 billion per year, according to an
analysis by the California Taxpayers Association, which opposes the bill. Voters
would have to approve the tax hikes. Assembly member Ash Kalra, a Democrat from San
Jose and the author of the proposal, said Tuesday it could be 2024 before that
proposal made it to the ballot.

The bill that advanced on Tuesday would create the universal health care system and
set its rules. It cleared the Assembly Health Committee on an 11-3 vote.
Republicans voted no, arguing the bill would cost too much and pay doctors and
nurses less, potentially worsening a shortage of health care workers.Even some
Democrats who voted for the bill had sharp criticism for the proposal. Assembly
member Autumn Burke, a Democrat from Inglewood, said advancing the bill without a
funding source made a mockery of the process.

“This bill has been sold to my community that it is going to change things now and
that it is free. And neither one of those things are true,” she said.

Business groups, led by the California Chamber of Commerce, said the government-run
health care system would be so expensive that the tax increase still wouldn’t be
enough to pay for everything. In 2018, California’s total health care expenditures
totaled $399.2 billion, accounting for 13.2% of the state’s gross domestic product,
according to an analysis by the Healthy California for All Commission.