DOUBLING DOWN ON STUPID: With Obamacare in jeopardy, California considers going it alone with ‘single-payer’ system.

“Why wouldn’t we take this as an opportunity to create what we want in California?” Dr. Mitch Katz, head of L.A. County’s health department, said at a conference in December. He mentioned a single-payer system as a possible solution.

Other suggestions for how California can capitalize on the threat to Obamacare include creating a public option, a state-run health plan to sell on the state’s insurance exchange, and mimicking how Massachusetts provided universal healthcare.

“Just as [healthcare] was a lightning rod and a rallying cry for opponents of the law for the past seven years, now it’s becoming a rallying cry for the supporters,” said Dr. Gerald Kominski, director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

State Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) introduced a bill Friday that would make California the first state to adopt single-payer, also called “Medicare for all.”

Colorado had a similar measure on the state ballot last November. Most state Democrats came out against the initiative, which would have nearly doubled state spending and payroll taxes in the first full year alone. “ColoradoCare” would have depressed jobs and wages, and voters rejected it by a massive four-to-one margin.

California’s taxes are already about 60% higher, per capita, than Colorado’s. If California decides to go enact single payer, it’s impossible to say where the money will come from. But it’s easy to predict where the jobs will go: Away.