With a 22 to 14 vote, the California Senate voted to approve bill SB810 to establish a single payer health care system.  The bill sets aside $1 million to establish a commission to draw up plans to pay for the system.  The payment plan would then need to be approved by the voters in order to be implemented.  At a time when national health care reform seems unlikely to pass, Sen. Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego) responded, “If it’s not to be done at the national level, let us take the lead.”

Californians already pay $200 billion a year for their current health care system.  The $200 billion would be used to establish the single payer system.  Funding would also be increased for the single payer system by shifting any funds that insurance companies currently make in profits to the government run plan as well as payment adjustments to doctors and hospitals.

The bill now will go the the Assembly to be voted on and if passed, it will be sent to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign into law.  Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has threatened to veto the legislation and it is not clear if Democrats will have the votes to override the veto.

The Proposition 8 trial is the first gay marriage trial to be held in federal court.  No matter what the outcome of the trial in California, the case is expected to make it to the Supreme Court and could determine if marriage is defined as between one man and one woman or if equal marriage rights will be extended to everyone.

One of the most interesting exchanges in the trial so far was when the judge asked, “If California would simply get out of the marriage business and classify everyone as a domestic partnership, would that solve the problem?”  The lawyer arguing for gay marriage rights, Theodore Olson, said that change would address any constitutional issues about the current differences between gay marriage and civil unions. However, he believes it would not be politically viable for the government to stop performing marriages and only issue civil unions.