North Coast Assemblymember expresses support for universal health care

EUREKA, CA. – As 2017 comes closer to an end, Assemblymember Jim Wood was in Humboldt County Tuesday to present supervisors with an end-of-the-year wrap up on where we’ve been, and where we’re going.

North Coast’s Assemblyman Jim Wood spoke on a range of topics from housing, to cannabis, to healthcare.

One topic he focused in on was universal, single payer health care in California.

As of late he’s been taking part in hearings across the state on the topic, and while he has many questions on SB-562, he says he’s in complete support of a state-wide universal health care system.

A question Supervisor Sundberg asked Wood was, how would we pay for it?

“I think paying for it is going to be complicated,” said Wood, “I think we are going to rely on about 52% of it from the federal government and the rest from current premium payers through potentially sales or payroll taxes. It’s the beginning of a very lengthy process and we need to do this in a very thoughtful way so that it can be sustainable, and affordable for everyone.”