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

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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.

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.

Among the important messages were:

• There is a growing state and national movement in support of Medicare for All
• Obama’s health reform package is too complex and costly – especially for companies, individuals and families
• The federal reforms won’t work as well because there are too many giveaways to health insurance companies
• Electing a governor in November who will preserve the community’s safety net and improve civic participation in California is crucial
• Universal health care is just one brick in the foundation needed to reverse our county’s decline into income polarization and corporate control
• True success for SB 810 is a long term project, probably taking seven to ten years and a ballot initiative to achieve.

More information and copies of presentations are available at the PNHP California website and on the organization’s Facebook page.

Jeoffry B. Gordon, MD, MPH

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With single payer, California OneCare, you choose any doctor you like. Whatever your doctor prescribes, that’s what you get. No need for preapprovals, and no exclusions for preexisting conditions. As Peggy Miley says, “That’s the way health care should be.”

Stanley and Betty Sheinbaum explain what single payer means. All the health care premiums go into one pot and from that pot all health care providers including doctors, hospitals, even dentists are paid. Single payer California OneCare is the health care plan that makes sense.

Click here to see the video

Many of us can lose our health insurance coverage if we change or lose jobs. For freelancers like actor David Clennon, the fear is even worse because his coverage depends on how much he earns in any given year. He’s been lucky so far, but if he had a bad year, he’d lose his coverage for himself and his family–a scary thought. The tragedy is that there are nearly seven million Californians who are already without coverage. Single payer, California OneCare would cover everybody, regardless of job status.

Medical Student members of the Physicians for a National Health Program are on a break telling jokes, but then they are reminded of something that’s just not funny. The sad truth about health care coverage is shocking and sobering.

]]> http://californiaonecare.org/365-ad35-137-medical-students/feed/ 0 http://californiaonecare.org/we-don%e2%80%99t-need-no-stinkin%e2%80%99-insurance-companies/ http://californiaonecare.org/we-don%e2%80%99t-need-no-stinkin%e2%80%99-insurance-companies/#comments Wed, 07 Jul 2010 19:58:30 +0000 admin http://californiaonecare.org/?p=3418 This essay is in response to the article, “Checkup” by Ryan Burns in The Journal (Humboldt County, CA): Thank you, Ryan Burns, for “Checkup” on the new health care law. Oh, yes, it’s true: It IS “better than nuthin’.” But, wait! Doesn’t any one stop to wonder why we must settle for such a pittance when our economy, our health and often our very lives depend on finding a real solution to the healthcare crisis? Yes, there are some very good features in the new legislation. Medi-Cal and Healthy Families in Humboldt County are rescued temporarily, and there will be some controls put on the mega-powered insurance companies that make life altering, financial judgments on our healthcare needs. Naughty insurance companies! They will have to pay fines now if they abrogate these new rules! But guess what choices they’ll make when the fines they pay are cheaper than playing by the rules (giving you the health care you need)? Did anyone wonder why the stock values of the big insurance companies shot up when the legislation was passed? Did anyone wonder why they were so willing to get on board with the new law? Could it be the thousands and thousands of new customers who must soon buy health insurance? Click here to read more]]> This essay is in response to the article, “Checkup” by Ryan Burns in The Journal (Humboldt County, CA):

Thank you, Ryan Burns, for “Checkup” on the new health care law.  Oh, yes, it’s true:  It IS “better than nuthin’.”  But, wait!  Doesn’t any one stop to wonder why we must settle for such a pittance when our economy, our health and often our very lives depend on finding a real solution to the healthcare crisis?

Yes, there are some very good features in the new legislation.  Medi-Cal and Healthy Families in Humboldt County are rescued temporarily, and there will be some controls put on the mega-powered insurance companies that make life altering, financial judgments on our healthcare needs.  Naughty insurance companies!  They will have to pay fines now if they abrogate these new rules!

But guess what choices they’ll make when the fines they pay are cheaper than playing by the rules (giving you the health care you need)? Did anyone wonder why the stock values of the big insurance companies shot up when the legislation was passed?  Did anyone wonder why they were so willing to get on board with the new law?  Could it be the thousands and thousands of new customers who must soon buy health insurance?

Insurance companies will make even more money under this new deal.  They will continue to raise rates across the nation and here in California, despite a new bill before our Senate that seeks to examine their rationale for rate hikes. And costs for health care will continue to spiral out of control.

The fact is, for-profit health insurance is the deal breaker.  There is no feasible way to offer low-cost, effective, universal health care to the public with private insurance as a middleman.  As much as 30% of every dollar we spend on insurance is eaten up by administrative costs, advertising, bonuses, mega-salaries, etc.  Everything our governing bodies try to do to co-exist with this paradigm is nothing more than fingers in the dike.  Because the insurance companies suck up the healthiest and wealthiest of the population, the burden of care and risk is borne by our government, which means, in case you have forgotten – US, the taxpayers.

We are already paying for health care for the poor and ill among us who are denied preventive care, and are driven to use emergency rooms for primary care.  We are already paying through the state’s endless stop-gap programs that take up the slack created by Big Insurance hoarding all the no-risk clients.

There is only one rational solution.  Everybody in, nobody out.  We are all in this together. Together we can make it work by creating a single-payer model similar to systems adopted by many other developed nations, but tailored to our specific needs.  There is currently a bill before our state legislature that would institute such a program.  SB 810 (sponsored by Sen. Mark Leno) is NOT socialized medicine, but a gold-standard system.  It offers full-choice, private delivery of care, public funding and stewardship.

SB 810 is fiscally sound, will control cost increases, is affordable for all, promotes better health, and will stimulate business by creating jobs, promoting productivity, and delivering the state from its financial meltdown. California can no longer afford NOT to adopt this kind of system.  Check it out at http://californiaonecare.org and let’s join the rest of the civilized world that sees taking care of its citizens not as a means to obscene profits for some, but as a moral obligation to all.

Patty Harvey

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The secret weapon that is going to defeat the trillion dollar insurance industry? YOU–the people who know that things have to change. Andrew McGuire, Health Care for All–California Executive Director, says that together we will make history, because WE WILL WIN.