Dear OneCare Supporters,
After years of fighting for real health care reform, 2011 is going to be an exciting pivotal year for the California OneCare Campaign for single payer health care reform.
Senator Mark Leno reintroduced Senate Bill 810 with the same number! It is essentially the same bill that has passed twice before in the legislature. But this legislature is different. There are many new Democrats not familiar with SB 810 and they must be educated.
The winds of change are ablowing.
From Madison to Sacramento, political change is starting to take hold. People are fighting back against the savage assault by radical Governors and other leaders on proven, practical social programs in the U.S. Nevertheless, Medicaid funding has been reduced, Medicare has been placed on the chopping block, Social Security is threatened with cuts or privatization, and public servants–nurses, teachers, firefighters, police officers, government workers–are denigrated and blamed for “budget deficits.”
This historic health care fight is a golden opportunity for the future of the Golden State.
Our fight for true health care reform is a key push back against these forces and we have a golden opportunity for success in California. We can be the pioneers of a true health care reform revolution by bringing single payer, universal health care to our state. We know how to create a health care system that is accessible and affordable for everyone which will launch a new vision for practical social justice for the country.
We will eliminate the greed, the profiteering and the misery.
Our health care system is getting sicker every day. There should be no room for profiteering off of children or adults who are injured or ill. Contracting cancer should never be a cause of bankruptcy. Denying a claim for medical care should be a long-forgotten, freakish memory of the everyday practice of greedy insurance corporations and their shareholders. Being at the mercy of insurance corporations as they annually increase their rates and reduce their coverage is evil and must end.
We know about the task ahead and we have a plan.
Passing and funding SB 810 will not be easy but we know what we need to do and we have a campaign strategy for success which we’ll be revealing in stages in the weeks and months ahead.
You can take immediate actions that will help right now.
1) Ask, convince, cajole or demand your state Senator and Assembly member to become a co-sponsor of SB 810.*
2) If they don’t co-sponsor SB 810, pressure them, until you are sure of their vote for SB 810 in committees and on the floor of the Senate or Assembly.
3) Ask friends, businesses, local elected officials, people at your place of worship–in short, everyone–to support SB 810 by sending a “letter of support or email” to Senator Mark Leno’s office in Sacramento.
Stay tuned for new campaign news and actions.
Are you able to help our historic movement? Are you willing to volunteer an hour a week? Or donate $5 a month? Truly, every action and every penny will help. The day will come when Goliath falls and we can joyfully look each other in the eye and say that we did the impossible. We defeated the colossal insurance corporations, and finally—finally–we have California OneCare for everyone, forever.
Thank you for your continued support. We will win!
Andrew McGuire, Executive Director
*For a directory of Senate and Assembly members and their contact information, go to: http://www.sen.ca.gov/ or http://www.assembly.ca.gov/defaulttext.asp