California has always been a state with high ambitions, but it has become quite an expensive place to live. The costs of living in California, such as rent, home price, electricity, gas, childcare, and healthcare keep increasing, which makes it challenging for families to stay in the Golden State. Governor Xavier Becerra has built his campaign around a single question: “Can an experienced person in health care and government make California a more affordable place to live?”
The problems, however, are much more comprehensive than just the healthcare system. Recent polls show that the affordability issue takes the first place among the electorate concerns, while economic and housing issues rank high as well. For example, the Public Policy Institute of California has stated that concerns about the inflation, cost of living, and housing prices are the most critical ones. The poll conducted by Emerson College indicates that 41% of potential voters consider the economy the foremost issue and 20% say that housing affordability is important for them. Thus, Xavier Becerra enters an electoral race along which his political ability to simplify living costs will be put to the test.
Why Healthcare Is Central to the Becerra Campaign
Healthcare is not just a matter of Baz’s campaign. It has been part of many of his previous endeavors throughout his long public life, starting from when he worked in Congress and continued as AG of California and later Secretary of Health and Human Services. Baz has many victories in the degree of the courts, health issues, and the fight against fraudulent medical practices.
Thats why Xavier Becerra has something most candidates lack – he gained hands-on experience dealing with the bureaucratic machine of medical costs. He advertises stronger purchasing power, wider access to primary care, and the expanded use of telehealth and assures that he is planning to create a fund for healthcare service professionals investment. The idea is quite simple, being insured does not really help if one has no doctor or cannot wait long enough for the appointment.
Even though there is also a more serious side to Baz’s healthcare plans. Xavier Becerra favors moving toward universal coverage and intends to leverage California’s size and purchasing power to make things cheaper. Also, he plans to help hospitals keep financing existing patients through non-administrative means.
According to the campaign, children’s Medi-Cal churn alone costs about $120 million over three years.
But California’s Affordability Problem Starts at Home
While Xavier Becerra’s prowess in healthcare cannot be contested, he is no different than anyone else when it comes to finding a way out of California’s affordability crisis; housing continues to be one of the obstacles that nobody wants to address directly.
Californians have long struggled to build enough housing in places where people actually work and earn their living, and high prices keep driving households away from their jobs, which means longer commutes for anyone who takes the job. Reports indicate that the issue of exorbitant housing prices goes beyond the traditional coastal areas where prices are classically high and poses a threat inland as well.
Becerra has introduced the housing plan that is rather detailed for a major political campaign whose participants prefer rather vague statements. In the plan, Becerra proposes to declare a state of emergency in connection with the crisis and expedite those projects that are already approved but still unavailable; he also thinks of reforming the zoning system and simplifying the current complicated process of funding affordable housing.
The intriguing aspect is that, instead of viewing housing as merely a social program, Xavier Becerra is portraying it as economic infrastructure. That distinction is important. California must boost supply while lowering the cost and bureaucracy of building if it is to achieve lower rents, cheaper transportation costs, and a workforce that can live close to employment hubs.
The Hard Part Is Delivering Results
At this stage, we find ourselves at the point where Xavier Becerra will take his biggest test. California has got no lack of programs, task forces or ambitious announcements. The bigger query is whether the next Governor of California will be able to get the government act faster.
In his housing propositions, Xavier Becerra acknowledges this issue. His campaign aims to get the agencies together in order to make the housing production more effective, to take a more strict approach to the enactment of the existing laws in the field of housing, as well as to develop a statewide framework of affordable housing in California.
His approach will find an audience among the people who have grown tired of hearing about how much California spends but seeing no visible results. However, the approach sets a higher burden for Xavier Becerra. Once a candidate promises to make the governing process efficient, the voters are entitled to ask how many apartments were built, how much the prices went down and whether the families in California feel the change.
A Comfortable Lead Does Not Remove the Pressure
Xavier Becerra has a lot of political room to act. An IGS Berkeley and Los Angeles Times poll taken in August shows Becerra receiving support from 55% of likely voters compared to 37% for the Republican candidate Steve Hilton. Another recent poll carried out on the commission from the Hilton campaign gives Becerra a smaller lead in 49.2% to 41% ratio. It looks like the race is not over yet. The political split reflects also the split in the affordability levels. Becerra is most successful in having support in the coastal major cities while Hilton is doing better in the more agriculture-oriented inland regions like Central Valley and North Coast/Sierra. Becerra has a tough chance in the two more competitive districts: the Inland Empire and Orange County. This is important because affordability in Los Angeles differs from affordability in cities like Fresno,Riverisde and smaller agricultural towns in the area.
Can a Healthcare Leader Deliver a Broader Economic Fix?
There are many reasons to think that Xavier Becerra is a suitable candidate and that his healthcare expertise can be useful because California has a combination of affordability problems. A high rent costs money that the family cannot spend on health. At the same time, lack of doctors raises access costs. As high housing costs prevent the state from attracting such important professionals as nurses and teachers, high transportation and energy costs work against families.
The problem is in the belief that knowledge in one complicated system can be used to work successfully in many of them. The problem of housing construction is separate from that of energy regulation, insurance markets and the state’s budgets. There is no governor who can just say “let’s make”.
This could be one of the major measures of Xavier Becerra’s success. If he manages to connect health care reform to the solutions of housing problem, labor problem, administrative efficiency and consumer protection, it would potentially make his initiative a better one than just a health care program.
California doesn’t require more assurance that affordability will materialize. It requires tangible proof that legislation may alter the math of daily existence. Xavier Becerra has a huge opportunity, but he also has high expectations. He may be elected governor due to his background in healthcare, but Californians’ perception of his qualifications will depend on the cost of living.
