Single payer is a publicly financed health insurance system that provides full coverage, for all, for less. For more information about this plan and Senate Bill 810 that would create it, click on the links below.
California OneCare Video | SB 810 Overview | SB 810 Details
Why we must pass single payer immediately.
The California Assembly Appropriations Committee is scheduled to hear Sen. Mark Leno’s single-payer bill, SB 810, this coming Wednesday, Aug. 4. The bill, which would establish a universal, Medicare for All-style health program for California, passed out of the Assembly Health Committee in June and was approved by the State Senate in January.
If passed by the full Assembly, it would be the third time the California legislature officially endorses single-payer. However, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed SB 810 twice, and is expected to veto it a third time. Despite the new healthcare reforms recently passed in Washington, it is imperative that Californians send a message to their state representatives that a single-payer, Medicare for All-type program for California is THE BEST solution to our healthcare crisis.
SB 810 will provide all Californians with comprehensive, high-quality and affordable health care. It will also save Californians money by eliminating the predatory and wasteful health insurance companies that profit from so many of our citizens’ suffering. So please tell your Assemblymember to vote YES on SB 810!
To contact Felipe Fuentes, Assembly Appropriations Chair, call 916-319-2039, or e-mail Assemblymember.Fuentes@assembly.ca.gov. A full list of the Assembly Appropriations members with contact information is available by clicking here. If you need to know who your Assemblymember is, click here. To contact Gov. Schwarzenegger’s office, call 916-445-2841, fax 916-558-3160 or e-mail here.
The hearing will be held at 9AM, Wednesday, Aug. 4, in the State Capitol, 10th and L Streets, Room 4202, Sacramento. You can view the agenda here.
Sylvia@californiaonecare.org
JB Fenix, a medical school student, and Juner Valencia, a nursing student, want to serve all Californians in a system that supports patients and delivers high quality, affordable care. They ask for your help in fighting for single payer, California OneCare.
Rev. Jim Burklo of the California Council of Churches sees California OneCare as the solution to the moral bankruptcy of our current, broken health care system, because it would minimize suffering and save lives.
As Geri Jewell says, “Nobody should be able to decide who gets health care and who doesn’t.” With single payer health care, everybody is covered, all the time, for everything.
There are nearly 7 million Californians without health insurance. Sumi Haru wants to know how anybody can think that that’s okay. Single payer, California OneCare would cover everybody, no exceptions.
Be ready! Single payer means eliminating insurance companies for good. But they’re not going to go without a fight. F.J. O’Neil reminds us, “Whatever they say or do, don’t believe it. Just remember that single payer is the only answer.”
Going to the dentist has always made me nervous. But since I left my last full-time job five years ago, nerves haven’t kept me away from the dentist. The lack of dental insurance has. However, my mother taught me to properly brush and floss regularly, so my teeth are in pretty good shape considering it’s been years since I’ve had my teeth professionally cleaned. I’m just grateful I got my wisdom teeth pulled when I had insurance.
If you’re currently uninsured or underinsured, do you remember when was the last time you saw a dentist? Have you ever seen one at all in your life? Have your children? In California, one in four kids have never gone to a dentist, according to a just-published study in the journal Health Affairs. The problem is particularly prevalent among African-American and Latino children, whether they have dental insurance or not. And according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 100 million Americans in 2006 lacked dental coverage for a full year.
California OneCare 365 Ad #145 Rafael Leyva
In Spanish, actor and filmmaker Rafael Leyva reminds us that as California goes, so goes the nation. “We have a chance to show the rest of the country how successful a single payer health plan will be,” he says. “Join the campaign for California OneCare.”
Writer Louise Williams remembers when we used to have the same family doctor for generations. Now you’re lucky if your doctor stays on your insurance company’s approved list for six months. Single payer, California OneCare, would mean that you could choose and keep any doctor you wish for as long as you like.
Thanks to Jeoffry B. Gordon, MD, MPH, for this summary of the successful event which took place July 17, 2010. Photos provided by California OneCare.
Last weekend, Physicians for A National Health Program California held a conference in Los Angeles on SB 810 – Single Payer for all Californians. It was attended by more than 150 enthusiastic and eager people. Speakers included Dr. Margaret Flowers, who was arrested at Senator Max Baucus’s Senate Finance Committee hearing which put single payer off the table; Dr. Paul Hochfeld, leader of The Mad As Hell Doctors’ tour; and former state Senator Sheila Kuehl. 
They all gave inspirational messages and examples from practical experience. Representatives of state Senator Mark Leno, California Teachers Association, California Nurses Association, California State Employees Association and California OneCare also participated.
