Great Expectations: California’s First Steps Toward Universal Health Care

In September 2017, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom stood in front of a crowd of 1,500 nurses in San Francisco and pledged his support for bringing universal health care to California. The nurses, members of the California Nurses Association, were the principal supporters of Senate Bill 562, which sought to replace the state’s patchwork insurance system with a single-payer model in which the state would finance health care for all residents.