by nyceve

There is an immensely important vote on Wednesday in the health committee of the California State Senate.

It’s a vote on AB 52 to regulate health insurers, and give the insurance commissioner the ability to review, approve, deny or modify excessive health insurance rate hikes – much as regulators do now in California with auto insurance.

As you might imagine, the insurance industry is committed to doing whatever it takes to defeat this vote and the bill.

We need your help defeating the insurance industry.

Do you remember a few years ago, everyone lent a hand to try and save the life of Nataline Sarkisyan, who was being denied a lifesaving liver transplant by CIGNA?  We need the same sort of citizen firepower today.

We can defeat them tomorrow, if we all pitch in today.

A victory for the people in Sacramento will belong to all Americans, not just residents of California who desperately need some small relief from egregious insurer price gouging.

AB 52 would give the insurance commissioner, Dave Jones, the ability to regulate health insurance rate hikes.

“I have the authority right now to reject excessive rate hikes for auto insurance, homeowners insurance, property insurance, casualty insurance, but not health insurance,” said California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones.

The state Senate Health Committee is voting on Wednesday about whether AB 52 [Link to the bill here] can leave committee and be voted on by the entire State Senate.

What you can do today to help the battle for AB 52:

If you are a resident of California:

Please call these Democrats on the Senate Health Committee and demand that AB 52 go to the floor for an up or down vote. This is very similar to the marriage equality vote in New York State. The Republican controlled New York State Senate ‘allowed’ that bill to come before the full New York State Senate for an up or down vote.

These are the people in Sacramento we need you to call.

Senator Ed Hernandez (Chair) — 916-651-4024
Senator Elaine Alquist — 916-651-4013
Senator Kevin de Leon — 916-651-4022
Senator Mark DeSaulnier (AB 52 co-author) — 916-651-4007
Senator Michael Rubio — 916-651-4016
Senator Lois Wolk (AB 52 co-author) — 916-651-4005

Here also is a link to where you can find the telephone number of your state representative. Please call them NOW and 1) make sure they know they must support AB 52 and, 2) demand your representative tell Committee Chairman Senator Hernandez and other members of the Senate Health Committee to allow the bill out for a vote of the entire Senate.

If you’re not a resident of California:

If you don’t live in California, odds, are you know people in California.  This bill
is important to them whether they know it or not.  So how about giving them a call and asking them to give their State Senator a call.

Or even better, use the ‘share’ function at the top of the diary and email this diary to anyone and everyone you know in California, with a note that they should make a call. You can also put it on your Facebook page and put it on your Twitter stream.

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Tomorrow, the vote in the Senate Health Committee is to pass the bill out of committee so that it can be voted on by the entire Senate. You’d think this would be a straightforward vote, well you’d be very wrong. The California Association of Health Plans is spearheading a campaign of lies and scare tactics. Read some of their crap here.

Guess who doesn’t want this vote to happen?  You got it, the insurance industry.  These thugs are spending a fortune to defeat this lone vote. Kaiser alone has spent $700,000 to kill this and other health care bills in Sacramento.

I would say, in the struggle to make healthcare a right in this country, this vote today, in it’s own way, is as important as the marriage equality vote was in New York State. It’s a shot over the bow of this predatory industry.

Every nail in the coffin of the for-profit insurance industry, is an important victory for the American people–not just the people of California–and against these murderous corporations.

The other day, I explained why Wendell Potter called the Blue Shield profit cap ‘a PR ploy and bullshit’. Blue Shield did this in a crass attempt to deflect attention from the vote on AB 52.

The stakes could not be any higher. On July 1st, 1.5 million Californians received rate hikes, some as high at 92%.

I urge you to read this article entitled Health Insurers Use Scare Tactics to Block Regulation of Rate Inceases by Michael Hiltzik the business editor of the Los Angeles Times about how the insurance industry is fighting AB 52 with a massive heavily funded campaign of deceit, distortion and outright lies.

What we’re seeing here from the insurance industry, is but a small appetizer of how they will use every weapon at their disposal, once the campaign for single payer gets started in earnest.

Let’s show the murder by spreadsheet industry what we’re made of today.

Here again are the people we need you to call.

Senator Ed Hernandez (Chair) — 916-651-4024
Senator Elaine Alquist — 916-651-4013
Senator Kevin de Leon — 916-651-4022
Senator Mark DeSaulnier (AB 52 co-author) — 916-651-4007
Senator Michael Rubio — 916-651-4016
Senator Lois Wolk (AB 52 co-author) — 916-651-4005

Originally posted in the Daily Kos. Nyceve is a board member of California OneCare.