Can California Make Single-Payer Healthcare Happen?

The California governor’s race has put the state on track for a healthcare experiment that would reverberate nationwide — and sharpen one of the Democratic Party’s most jagged divides.

After the collapse this month of former Representative Eric Swalwell’s campaign, the three leading Democrats remaining in the race — Tom Steyer, Katie Porter and Xavier Becerra — are promising to pursue the nation’s first state-level, single-payer healthcare system. Any of them would be a prohibitive favorite facing Republican Steve Hilton, the likely other finalist, in November. That means the chances are high that California’s next governor will be elected on a promise to guarantee universal health coverage and eliminate private health insurance.