LOS ANGELES – A line of people outside the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in central L.A. wrapped around the block last Wednesday night for the ‘Tax the Billionaires’ event where Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders was scheduled to speak. The event kicked off a campaign calling for an ‘emergency’ tax on California billionaires. The proposal — a one-time 5% tax on billionaire assets — would raise around $100 billion to aid healthcare programs for low-income Californians. Opponents argue that this proposal will push California billionaires away from the state, bringing their wealth with them.
The proposal comes as Congress considers major changes to federal health care funding under the Trump administration’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’. The bill would allow enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies to expire while cutting Medicaid funding.
Projected to leave 1.7 million additional Californians uninsured by 2034, critics of the bill argue these changes will add stress to the state’s healthcare system, skyrocket premiums, and strip coverage for many Californians over the next decade.
These warnings echoed throughout the rally, becoming a central theme of the night. Dr. Jackline Lasola, resident physician at University of California San Francisco (UCSF), opened the campaign event by addressing the state of the California healthcare system. Dr. Lasola described patients traveling from hundreds of miles away because their closest medical facility lacked the resources to treat them.
Nidal Rafeedie, Director of Respiratory Care at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, warned of the impact of federal cuts to the state’s healthcare. “Two million Medi-Cal recipients can lose access to care,” said Rafeedie. “This will lead to more delaying of treatment until patients are critically ill, more ER visits, and more hospitals absorbing uncompensated care.”
The impact resonated among the L.A. residents in the crowd. In California’s 36th Congressional District alone, 160,000 people are either enrolled in Medi-Cal — the state’s public health insurance program for low-income residents — or receiving Covered California premium subsidies — financial assistance that helps pay private insurance plans purchased in the state marketplace. This accounts for almost a quarter of the district — not including other nearby West L.A. districts.
With these numbers in mind, Sanders took the stage to address the crowd. Arguing that the state has enough resources to prevent the federal cut’s impacts, the Vermont Senator called on all 200 California billionaires to pay “their fair share of taxes.”
As Sanders’ supporters cheered inside the auditorium, some California politicians have publicly stepped back from supporting the billionaire-tax legislature. Governor Gavin Newsom has notably been against the tax, citing concerns that California’s richest residents would leave the state and bring their businesses elsewhere.
Residents and billionaires alike have had similar concerns. Recent polling reveals that there is a split among Californian voters — concerns varied between losing jobs and hurting the state’s economy. Some billionaires have even begun moving their operations to states like New York and Nevada.
Billionaire-funded opposition committees have already begun to work against the campaign. Golden State Promise, a newly-formed group opposed to the bill, has already received $5 million in donations from Chris Larsen, a Californian cryptocurrency billionaire.
As opposition committees mobilized, supporters quickly gathered signatures outside the theatre, needing 875,000 signatures by June for the tax proposition to appear on the ballot. With oppositional funding already entering the conversation and labor unions pushing the ballot’s signatures, the next months will decide whether the billionaire tax bill qualifies for the November ballot.
