You’ll hear lost of crowing about how health care is dead or how health care should be handled in DC, or what not. But with DC foundering, and the status quo completely untenable for millions of Californians, Sen. Mark Leno has continued to press for single payer health care here in California. Sure, we all know that the bill will be vetoed by the Governor, but there is a point besides just that.
We simply cannot assume that Massachusetts means something it doesn’t. Or that there is just one story to be told. Barbara O’Connor makes this point:
“They shouldn’t overblow the vote of Massachusetts because there were lots of variables there,” she said. “It wasn’t just health care that drove that election.”
Instead, she said, it was disaffection from the left, which wanted President Barack Obama to seek a more aggressive public option to his health care reform, combined with the anger from independents, who wanted Obama to focus on jobs, that allowed Republicans to capture that seat.(CoCoTimes)
As we water down health care reform in DC, somebody has to carry the torch forward for real reform. This is the point of SB 810, to show that there is another choice, another system that we could build. If we completely drop single payer from our platform of ideas, we’ll simply see the Republicans calling some more centrist idea crazy and unamerican.
We just can’t win by giving in to the Republicans over and over and over again. Heck, as it is, it is increasingly hard to differentiate the Senate bill from McCain’s health care plan from 2008. We need voices to press for the left, and if that means passing a bill that will be vetoed, then so be it.
The California OneCare Campaign is the best organized, most sophisticated, and well-financed movement for single payer in the nation. We have grassroots chapters across the state, the support of 23 coalition partners, and a radical new 365 Ad Campaign of TV spots set to launch on March 1st. There will be a new spot every day for a year featuring celebrities, community leaders, health care victims, and YOU–anyone can submit a spot!
Go to CaliforniaOneCare.org to learn more and join the campaign for single payer in California. Together, WE WILL WIN!
Currently, healthcare dollars are siphoned off to insurance companies, which everyone knows. However, most don’t know how much their brokers profit from setting clients up with those usurious insurance plans. CSEA found the broker backend commmission was 1.5 million in one case.
The other cost driver is poor quality care. The business model of providing health care results in wildly varying quality of care. The social model, emphasizing prevention and best practices, as employed at the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic, results in better care at a lower price.
The more we have this conversation, the sooner we win at the national level. Hats off to Mark Leno.
And if Jerry Brown gets behind it and takes the pledge to sign it, he can win the State House. And Arnold Schwarzenegger will clinch his title as “Governor No” if he vetoes for a third time.
Really. No-brainer here.
It would be so wonderful if this were to pass and be signed into law (I know that won’t happen though). I work in the entertainment industry and I get my health insurance from the Entertainment Partners Health Plan. Last November they sent out the annual rate increase letter, but there was an added bit this time. EP is canceling the plan as of December 31, 2010. So, this Summer/Fall I need to find a new health plan that will cover me. Ugh.
..and it needs to pass, like when Fmr. Gov. Earl Warren first voiced support for it back in the last century. Act now!