The most expensive medical treatments don't allow you the luxury of shopping around. And how is the average American going to pay back a millions of dollars loan?
That is a far stretch when a few items are produced by the state to call the society/state a communistic construct. Especially when California hosts so many very capitalistic companies.
They intervened in a disfunctional market and take care of their citizens. That is what a state has to do for their citizens.