EDITORIAL: Single-payer health care fans, starting with Gavin Newsom: How would you pay for it?

Feb. 23--Every Californian should welcome the collapse of attempts to recall Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon for his sin of shelving Senate Bill 562. That bill would have committed the state to adopting single-payer health care without explaining how the vast cost would be covered, how state constitutional obstacles would be overcome and how necessary federal waivers would be obtained from a Trump administration that is hostile to the Golden State.

Yet one Californian who still ardently supports Senate Bill 562 is Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the front-runner in the governor's race in several opinion polls. At a Thursday night debate in San Diego among four Democratic gubernatorial candidates here for a state party convention, Newsom embraced a state switch to a single-payer system and ripped "defeatist Democrats," such as rivals Antonio Villaraigosa and John Chiang, who are more circumspect about the plan's details and financing.

Newsom may think his glib applause line gives him the moral high ground, but it doesn't. Asked how he'd fund it Thursday, he raved about the prospect without answering the question. An analysis released last April that estimated a single-payer system would cost $400 billion a year -- more than triple the state's general-fund budget -- should have led all proponents to explain how this immense tab would be covered and by whom. It's detail No. 1.

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