Critiquing the need for universal health care in California:

He has also bought into the myth that uninsured Californians drive up health costs by delaying primary care and showing up at emergency rooms once their ailments have become unnecessarily expensive to treat. This myth now bears a number ““ a “hidden tax” that the uninsured impose on the insured of $1,186 per insured family and $455 per insured individual ““ kindly furnished by the New America Foundation. This $9.5 billion figure is misleading in many ways.

First, many uninsured have jobs. One fifth earn more than three times the federal poverty level ““ about $50,000 for a family of three. By forgoing health insurance, these people are voluntarily paying extra income tax ““ likely more than $2,000 a year for the family above. Even the governor estimates these extra taxes at $8.4 billion ““ so the uninsured already pay almost 90 percent of the so-called “hidden tax” as explicit taxes.