Uncategorized

AB 52: What do Sens. Hernandez, Altieri and Rubio have in common?

What do Sens. Hernandez, Altieri and Rubio have in common?

They’re in the Senate, obviously.  They’re on the Health Committee.  They’ll be voting on AB 52, tomorrow — the bill that would give Dave Jones the ability to regulate increases in health insurance premiums the way he does with auto and prop & casualty insurance.

And — they haven’t yet said which way they’ll vote.

The three Republicans are presumably “no” votes.  Three of the committee’s Democrats — bill co-sponsors DeSaulnier and Wolk, along with de Leon — have told callers from “Big Orange” that they will support it.  That leaves the three aforementioned Democrats on the nine-person committee unaccounted for as of the day before the vote.

We already know what arguments lobbyists will use.  Assembly Members Charles Calderon and Jose Solorio gave us a preview of them when the bill came to the Assembly.  The biggest “argument,” though, is money: the threat of campaign contributions for you or against you — or, I suppose, if you’re leaving elected office, “career help.”

One caller reported that Sen. Alquist’s office reported that her staff was collecting information from people and would use it to brief her when the time came to make the decision.  No knock intended on Alquist’s staffers versus any others, but this gives me the heebie-jeebies.  I don’t put it past insurers to have “lobbied” individual staffers in much the same way (though with lower stakes) as they do electeds.  We need to make sure that the electeds get good information — information showing a very strong level of support for AB 52, too large for staffers to ignore.

Here are those numbers:

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

We could lose this whole thing — this obviously necessary reform — tomorrow.  Make your voice heard and push others to lend their voices to the effort as well.

And we need to do it right now.

Uncategorized

AB 52: What do Sens. Hernandez, Altieri and Rubio have in common?

What do Sens. Hernandez, Altieri and Rubio have in common?

They’re in the Senate, obviously.  They’re on the Health Committee.  They’ll be voting on AB 52, tomorrow — the bill that would give Dave Jones the ability to regulate increases in health insurance premiums the way he does with auto and prop & casualty insurance.

And — they haven’t yet said which way they’ll vote.

The three Republicans are presumably “no” votes.  Three of the committee’s Democrats — bill co-sponsors DeSaulnier and Wolk, along with de Leon — have told callers from “Big Orange” that they will support it.  That leaves the three aforementioned Democrats on the nine-person committee unaccounted for as of the day before the vote.

We already know what arguments lobbyists will use.  Assembly Members Charles Calderon and Jose Solorio gave us a preview of them when the bill came to the Assembly.  The biggest “argument,” though, is money: the threat of campaign contributions for you or against you — or, I suppose, if you’re leaving elected office, “career help.”

One caller reported that Sen. Alquist’s office reported that her staff was collecting information from people and would use it to brief her when the time came to make the decision.  No knock intended on Alquist’s staffers versus any others, but this gives me the heebie-jeebies.  I don’t put it past insurers to have “lobbied” individual staffers in much the same way (though with lower stakes) as they do electeds.  We need to make sure that the electeds get good information — information showing a very strong level of support for AB 52, too large for staffers to ignore.

Here are those numbers:

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

We could lose this whole thing — this obviously necessary reform — tomorrow.  Make your voice heard and push others to lend their voices to the effort as well.

And we need to do it right now.