California OneCare

Spring 2013: You Are Key to a Better Way

Sylvia Moore — Wed, 22 May 2013 21:26:51 +0000

Dear California OneCare Supporters,

I live at the northeast edge of the Sacramento Valley, one of the richest agricultural areas in the world, where the beginning of spring heralds an explosion of blossoms. We look forward to it every winter and revel in it until we’re overcome by sneezing and coughing, as pollen fills the air and allergies are triggered. That floral beauty comes at a high price.

Which brings me to the expectations Americans have had for the Affordable Care Act, also known as ACA or Obamacare. Although ACA will dramatically expand Medicaid coverage and provide some other necessary improvements in health care, many health policy researchers now recognize that it is not the solution to our health care crisis. It does NOT control rising costs and, even after it is fully implemented, over 3 million Californians will still lack health care (CBO Report).

As single payer avtivists have said all along, access to health insurance is not the same as access to health care. For the uninsured, who will be mandated to purchase insurance, high co-pays and deductibles will render it too expensive since no cost controls are included in ACA. The reality is that, since the insurance industry strongly influenced the drafting of the legislation that created ACA, it follows that they will benefit the most from its implementation. In fact, they’re already looking to take advantage of loopholes that benefit them (click here).

As Californians recognize more and more that ACA is much less than the solution to our health care maze, and will cost a lot more than they expected, we have an opportunity to let them know there is a better way.

Call it single payer or call it Medicare for All Californians. Whatever we call it, now is the time to recharge our campaign and make sure that more Californians understand how it differs from ACA and, importantly, how it can build upon it.

Working with California Health Professional Student Alliance and Physicians for a National Health Plan – California, we are moving ahead with our plan to win health care justice by 2017*. We’re now enlisting other statewide organizations as partners in a broad and diverse coalition, dedicated to bringing single payer to all Californians.

There’s no single way to make this happen, so we offer different opportunities for you to show your support and build the movement:

1. Like us on Facebook. Believe it or not, this increases our visibility and public support for the movement.

2. Become a monthly donor. It’s an easy, convenient and efficient way to help the campaign. It ensures dependable monthly support that allows us to focus on what matters – strengthening the movement for a single payer health care system in California. Plus, you can ignore any future fundraising messages you receive from us – guiltfree!

3. Ask three friends to sign up on the California OneCare website (click here).

4. Follow your passion. Get together with a like-minded friend and start a OneCare Team in your community. For more information or if you need help finding others in your area who may be interested, give me a call at 530-892-1333.

By the way, guess what industry benefits from all that sneezing and coughing up my way?
That would be the Pharmaceutical Industry, another beneficiary of ACA.

I look forward to hearing from you and working with you to do what we ought to have done decades ago – create an affordable, cost effective health care system that covers everyone with comprehensive benefits.

Thank you for your continuing support of this important work.

Sincerely,

Jeanne Ertle
Vice Chair, Board of Directors, California OneCare

* This is the date that ACA allows states to apply for a State Innovation Waiver, which will make it possible for California to set up its own single payer health care system.

A Republican talks about single payer

Sylvia Moore — Mon, 20 May 2013 20:45:13 +0000

American College of Cardiology
ACC-in-Touch Blog
April 23, 2013
I Am A Republican… Can We Talk About A Single Payer System?
By David May

I am a Republican. For those who know me that is not a surprise. I live in a red state. I have never voted for a Democratic presidential candidate. I can field strip, clean and reassemble a Remington 12-gauge pump blindfolded. And on top of it, I think we should talk about having a single payer national health care plan. The reason is quite simple. In my view, we already have one; we just don’t take advantage of it.

Firstly, Medicare and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) are de facto setting all of the rules now. They are a single payer system. When we go to lobby the Hill, we lobby Congress and CMS. Talking to Blue Cross, Aetna, Cigna and United Health care is essentially a waste of time. All the third party payers do is play off the Medicare rules to their advantage and profit. They have higher premiums, pay a somewhat higher benefit and have a significantly higher level of regulation which impedes the care of their customers. This is no longer consumer choice but effectively extortion, a less than hidden shake down in which the “choice” for a family of four is company A at $900 per month or company B at $1100 per month. The payers are simply taking advantage of the system, playing both ends against the middle.

Secondly, in order to move forward with true health care finance we need complete transparency in cost and expense… and we need it now. As was noted in a recent Time magazine piece on the hidden cost of health care, our current system is a vulgar, less than honorable construct more akin to used car sales than medical care, cloaked under the guise of generally accepted accounting principles and hospital cost shifting.

Thirdly, with a single payer system would potentially come real utilization data, real quality metrics and real accountability. The promise of ICD-10 with all of its difficulties is that of a much more granular claims-made data. We could use some granularity in health care data and we will never achieve it in big data quantities without a single payer system.

Lastly, I think that the physicians should be in charge of health care and not the insurance companies and hospital systems. With a single price structure, it becomes all about medical decision making, efficiency, the provision of care to our patients, and shared decision making, all of which we do well.

How, you might say, could a Republican come to such a position? The simple answer is I really think it is quite Republican. Oh, I know there will be many raised eyebrows and many critics. I accept that. I understand the fact that no single payer system is perfect, that it is “socialist,” that it is “un-American.”

I would submit to you, however, that it is un-American to allow many of our citizens to be uninsured, that it is un-American to shunt money away from a strong military in order to support a bloated, inefficient and fraud-laden health care system, that it is un-American not to be open and above board with the cost of what we do, the expense of that service and the profit that we make. Mostly, it is un-American to let this outrageous health care injustice continue.

David May, MD, PhD, FACC,

Chair of the Board of Governors of the American College of Cardiology.

Comment from Don McCanne, MD, of pnhpcalifornia.org: David May provides an important lesson for those who think that the single payer concept falls on the far left of a linear political spectrum. Society is not linear; it’s four dimensional. If we look at all dimensions, single payer clearly prevails. We can thank Dr. May for shattering the traditional but flawed construct of health care ideology.

This Article and Quote of the Day by Don McCanne is republished by the California OneCare Campaign with thanks to Dr. May, to Don and to Physicians for A National Health Program-California, pnhpcalifornia.org.

Andrew McGuire, Executive Director, California OneCare Campaign

New Single Payer Alliance Seeks Name Suggestions

Sylvia Moore — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 22:32:07 +0000

A New Phase, a New Name for California’s Fight for Universal, Single Payer Healthcare

Dear California OneCare Supporters,
We are moving ahead with detailing and implementing a Five Year Plan to win healthcare justice in California by 2017. This is the date the federal Affordable Care Act allows states to apply for a State Innovation Waiver to set up their own health care systems.

To better align our focus and strengthen our impact, the single-issue, single payer grassroots groups are forming a new alliance.

The new alliance, which so far includes California OneCare, Physicians for a National Health Program–California and the California Health Professional Student Alliance is already working on a plan to enlist individuals and organizations into the single payer cause in a way that broadens and diversifies the movement.

The new alliance has invited Georgia Mae Brewer to be our statewide coordinator, and she has accepted. Georgia is a member of Health Care for All–California, PNHP CA and has served as the co-coordinator of the Los Angeles Regional Single Payer Coalition.

Next Step: We need a name for the Alliance!

Our identity as a campaign will play a key role in our success as we reach out to inform, educate, recruit, and build a movement. We’ve decided to “crowd source” the naming of the new alliance to the single payer grassroots. Who better to ask than you, our long-committed California OneCare supporters?

Do you have a great idea for a name of our Alliance?
Send it to georgiabrewer@gmail.com.

Here are the contest ground rules:
- Do not use “single-payer” in the name
- Do not use the name of an existing healthcare reform group or campaign.
- Submit your entry no later than Friday, April 19th!
- You may submit as many names as you like!

The prize for winning the contest is knowing that you helped the movement for single payer take another step toward quality, affordable health care for all!

Remember, with your help, WE WILL WIN!

Andrew McGuire

Executive Director, California OneCare Campaign

This video beautifully illustrates the unique American problem of medical debt

Sylvia Moore — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 21:46:39 +0000

From StrikeDebt.org:

Sylvia@californiaonecare.org

Individuals and small companies likely to see health premiums jump next year

Sylvia Moore — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 22:18:26 +0000

Get ready for some sticker shock. The major health insurance companies say they plan to ratchet up premiums between 25% and 116% next year, once the Affordable Care Act is fully up and running. Small businesses and people who buy coverage on their own will be affected. The insurers say they’ll have to charge more because of new requirements in the law that expand benefits, ban discrimination of people with pre-existing conditions, and restrict how much older patients can be charged. But the Obama administration says subsidies and increased competition should force prices down. But the fact is, no one would have to worry at all about premium increases if the government would just allow everyone into Medicare.

Sylvia@californiaonecare.org

The American healthcare racket

Sylvia Moore — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 21:31:22 +0000

If you haven’t yet read Steven Brill’s comprehensive investigative piece for TIME Magazine about why healthcare costs are so high, it’s well worth taking the time to digest the 80-plus pages. The article is an indictment of our for-profit healthcare system, shining a spotlight – not on insurance companies – but on supposedly “not-for-profit” hospitals. According to Brill’s investigation of patients’ bills, hospitals are vastly overcharging for routine tests and basic supplies, costing patients and taxpayers billions of dollars and stuffing the hospitals’ bottom line. Pharmaceutical and medical device companies are also dining at the trough, their obscene profits kept afloat by Congressional lawmakers who receive fat campaign contributions by those same companies.

Unfortunately, the Affordable Care Act, Brill writes, won’t do anything to rein in these costs. Instead, Brill predicts the ACA will eventually cause insurance premiums to soar. Brill’s investigation is more proof that the American healthcare system is a racket and is no longer sustainable. The healthcare industry’s insatiable greed is stripping the meager resources of Americans who have seen their wages stagnate over the last 30 years. Our nation will soon become bankrupt if we don’t reject the idea that health care should be up for sale. Expanding Medicare to everyone in the United States is the only way to stop the gouging.

Sylvia@californiaonecare.org

Activists gather in Sacramento and Los Angeles to support Medicare for all

Sylvia Moore — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 20:57:28 +0000

On Feb. 11, 2013, single payer health care supporters rallied in Sacramento and in Los Angeles in support of the California Professional Student Alliance’s Annual Lobby Day.

Sylvia@californiaonecare.org

Urgent Calls Needed for Single Payer Bill

Sylvia Moore — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 18:08:06 +0000

ACTION ALERT for California OneCare Supporters:

California’s Single Payer legislation is at risk!

Your Calls to Legislators are Needed Friday

Dear OneCare Supporters,

We join The Coalition for A Healthy California and PNHP-CA to seek your help starting Friday, February 15th.

Please take a moment to make brief, polite phone calls to encourage an Assemblymember to author and introduce single payer legislation in the Assembly by next Friday, February 22nd.

If the bill is not introduced in time, there will be no single payer legislation this session, which lasts two years.

Background:

Senator Mark Leno authored the single payer legislation, SB 810 in the past two sessions (four years) and the bill failed last year by only two votes. At the end of last session, Senator Leno declined to author the bill again and suggested we seek an author in the Assembly. Despite concerted efforts, we have not been successful in finding an Assemblymember to introduce the bill. We are told that the legislature is focused on implementing the private health insurance exchange mandated by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Single payer bills SB-810 and SB-840, which passed twice, had over 40 Co-Authors in the legislature previous years!

Tell our Assemblymembers they can chew gum and walk at the same time! A single payer system cannot be implemented until 2017 – the date the Affordable Care Act allows states to go beyond the ACA and set up their own healthcare systems. We can both implement the health exchange this year and get California ready for single payer in 2017.

HOW TO HELP

Please call the following legislators starting Friday and request that they carry the single payer legislation. Ask for the legislative aide listed below. If they are not available, please ask for their voicemail and leave a brief message. If voicemail is unavailable, simply leave your message with the person who answers the phone. Be sure to mention if you happen to live in the district.

Here are the legislators to call, with the name of their aide:

1. Paul Fong (28, Sunnyvale): Andrew Medina (916-319-2028)

2. Bonnie Lowenthal (70, Long Beach): MJ Gascon Flores (916-319-2070)

3. Rob Bonta (18, Oakland): An-Chi Tsou (916-319-2018)

4. Richard Gordon (24, Los Altos): Angela Pontes (916-319-2024)

5. Mariko Yamada (4, Vacaville): Robert McLaughlin (916-319-2004)

6. Mark Stone (29, Monterey, Santa Cruz): Arianna Smith (916-319-2029)

7. Shirley Weber (79, San Diego): Crystal Quezada (916-319-2079)

PLEASE CALL!

We need and appreciate your ACTION NOW. We also appreciate your generous DONATIONS. With your help, WE WILL WIN!

Sincerely,

Andrew McGuire, Executive Director, California OneCare Campaign & California OneCare Education Fund

(Our thanks to our friends at PNHP California (Physicians for a National Health Program – California) for this Alert)

Medicare for All Rallies in Sacramento & Los Angeles to Celebrate Lobby Day, Feb. 11

Sylvia Moore — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 22:03:17 +0000

From Campaign for a Healthy California:

Insurance companies are raising their rates on individual policy holders by 20%. It’s time to tell legislators to PUT PEOPLE FIRST!
Lobby Day/Rally

February 11 at Noon, Join the Campaign for a Healthy California in supporting the California Health Professional Student Alliance Lobby (CaHPSA) rally for single payer!
Free bus rides to Sacramento available from Bay Area locations. Please call to reserve!

Noon Join the students on the north steps of the Capitol
1:00 PM March to the California Association of Health Plans at 14th and L Streets.
(A bus will be available for those unable to walk that distance.)

■ San Francisco: San Francisco Main Library, Larkin and Fulton at 9 am. Reserve a seat through Don Bechler at Single Payer Now, 415-810-5826.
■ Richmond: Target, 42nd and MacDonald Avenue at 9:45 am. Reserve a seat through Cara at 510-663-4086.
■ Berkeley: Ashby Bart at 9:15 am. This bus will pick up in Richmond after the Berkeley stop. Reserve a seat through Cara at 510-663-4086.
■ San Jose: South Bay Labor Council, 2102 Almaden Road at 9:00 am. Reserve a seat through Greg Miller – (408) 254-3311.
■ Grass Valley: KMart, 111 W. McKnight Way at 9:30 am. Reserve a seat through Mindy’s email.
■ Roseville: UDW office, 800 Sunrise Avenue Suite C at 10:15 am. Reserve a seat through Diana at 916-435-9760.
■ Fresno: Mervyn’s Parking Lot, Ashlan and Shields at 7:30 am. Reserve a seat through Judy Hess – 559-907-0279.
■ Modesto: Old Krispy Kreme, Briggsmoore at Highway 99 at 9:15 am. Reserve a seat through Carol Bailey at 209-951-0499.
■ Stockton: Clarion Hotel, Highway 99 at Waterloo at 10 am. Reserve a seat through Carol Bailey at 209-951-0499.

Email Questions (info@Healthycaliforniacampaign.org) or call 800-745-3090

Share the ENGLISH flyer
Share the SPANISH flyer

Information below for Los Angeles satellite rally:

Americans under 50 are sicker than people in other rich nations, according to new study

Sylvia Moore — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 22:55:33 +0000

Our inadequate, for-profit healthcare system is taking a heavy toll on America’s well-being. Americans under 50 are sicker and have shorter life spans than people in other wealthy nations, according to a new study by the National Academies, the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Health and Human Services. And this health disadvantage affects all races and classes, even high-income Americans and the insured. However, in one exception, Americans who are fortunate enough to reach 75 tend to live longer than their counterparts in other rich nations. The report says the United States ranks at or near the bottom in several key areas, including:

infant mortality and low birth weight; injuries and homicides; teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections; prevalence of HIV and AIDS; drug-related deaths; obesity and diabetes; heart disease; chronic lung disease; and disability.

What sets the other rich nations apart from the U.S. is that they all have some form of universal health care: from government-provided coverage to heavily-regulated insurance models. They also have lower rates of poverty and higher rates of social mobility. The important thing is, people shouldn’t have to wait until their golden years to have access to affordable, quality health care. People shouldn’t have to spend their most productive years sick and in fear of bankruptcy from illness. It’s past time to allow everyone into Medicare.

Sylvia@californiaonecare.org