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As Republicans in Washington contemplate the uncertain fate of their health-care bill over the July 4 recess, they might consider recent events in another legislature on the opposite coast of America. Earlier this month, Democrats in the California state senate passed their own big, bold, bad health-care bill. The legislation would have required the state government to supplant insurers, providing health insurance to all residents and negotiating medical costs with hospitals, doctors and other providers. (6/27)

California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon did the state a favor late Friday afternoon when he slammed the brakes on a fast-moving Senate bill to create a single-payer healthcare system in California. As should be obvious from the flailing Republican efforts in Washington, it’s easy to talk about drastic changes in the way healthcare is financed, but hard to make those changes work without hurting many of the people you’re trying to help. (6/27)

If expanding access to health care is more important than lining the pockets of special interests and giving tax breaks to billionaires, we can make it a reality. We just need to demand the politicians we elect to represent us, get the message. (Connie Pillich, 6/27)

Thhe central theme of the Republican campaign to repeal the Affordable Care Act has been freedom: freedom from Obamacare’s onerous regulations, freedom from overpriced insurance and most of all, freedom from the tyrannical individual mandate. The Senate has now released its long-awaited alternative to Obama-era health reform. Although the Better Care Reconciliation Act is embattled, there’s still a decent chance that the Senate will pass it. If it does, the bill is likely to become law. (Nicholas Bagley, 6/28)