Article from Reason by Eric Boehm.

When lawmakers in the lower chamber of New York’s General Assembly voted for a single-payer health care proposal in mid-May, they waved off concerns about how to pay for it. Lawmakers in the California Senate did the same, voting in early June for a single-payer plan without first conducting a full-fledged analysis of how much it would cost.

As lawmakers in D.C struggle to make headway on federal health care policy, states are looking for their own solutions. In Democrat-controlled state capitols, that means taking a look at single-payer plans that would sweep aside private health insurance in favor of taxpayer-funded options.

But try as they might, these lawmakers can’t ignore the price tag. Most states operate under rules that require balanced budgets, so a massive new expense such as single-payer health care requires an equally massive increase in taxes. Thanks to the proposals in California, New York, and elsewhere, we’re starting to get an idea of exactly how massive.

Efforts to implement single-payer have been tried in both large and small states, in states that are growing quickly and states that aren’t. Despite those variables, one thing remains fairly constant: Such programs require at least twice the amount of revenue consumed by every other state-level program in a single year.

Read the entire article at Reason.