There is a good health-care model out there

The conservative case for universal health insurance means liberals must accept Medicaid is a welfare program trapping people into poverty, where the underground economy becomes their only path to economic prosperity.

Single financing through Social Security, not single payer, is the key. Canada and Taiwan operate like traditional Medicare. France, Japan and Germany look like Medicare Advantage, self-insured but through quasi-governmental insurance funds like schools, irrigation districts, utilities or credit unions. Britain is like the Veterans Affairs system.

The key is a system where the CEO and the janitor cleaning the office at night have equal access to the medical community like public education provides their kids or Medicare their parents.

A recent survey from Small Business California shows solid support for a public insurance, especially if it includes the medical portion of worker’s compensation.

We still have time to get it right and create a dignified insurance system where risk is distributed by ability to pay. Public health and economic opportunity improve when health insurance is shared broadly across society and where no one is required to remain poor or limit their income for medical care.

California can lead the nation with the Healthy California Act, SB 562.

This story was originally published April 1, 2017 at 2:00 PM with the headline "There is a good health-care model out there."