Earl Warren's California Health Insurance Plan: What Might Have Been

In the mid-1940s, Governor Earl Warren failed to obtain legislative enactment of a universal single-payer state health insurance plan for California workers. Had he succeeded, the California example might well have been emulated by other states, producing a very different state and national health care system than what actually developed. But a combination of miscalculation on Warren's part and divided support from organized labor doomed three separate versions of tfie Warren health plan.