Healthcare is a basic human right. The current healthcare system in America is dysfunctional and expensive. The bill that will pass in DC, eventually, will at best point in the direction of the need to make further changes, but most probably it will be the last time healthcare is tackled at the national level for quite a while.

We know that a Single Payer system is by far the best because it pays for itself by cutting down administrative costs to about 3%. And we understand that by allowing a government run insurance company to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies the cost of medicines will be reduced dramatically. In California these two items account for about 50% of all costs.

Single Payer Senate Bill 810 has a chance of becoming a reality in the most populous State. It is being discussed in the California Assembly as we speak.

When this happens other states may follow. And then we will all have healthcare at reasonable costs while maintaining the same quality of a privately run healthcare provider system paid by health insurance managed by the government.

Most Americans support this once they understand how it works.

Below I explain how you can help make SB 810 a reality and prevent thousands of unnecessary deaths.

First some basic points about SB 810 a.k.a. California Health Insurance Reliability Act (CHIRA);

   SB 810 (Leno), the California Health Insurance Reliability Act, (CHIRA), would provide fiscally sound, affordable health insurance coverage to all Californians, provide every Californian the right to choose his or her own physician and control health cost inflation.

   Reliable Coverage: Eligibility is based on residency, instead of on employment or income. Under CHIRA, all residents are covered. No California resident will ever again lose his or her health insurance because of unaffordable insurance premiums, or because he or she changes or loses a job, or goes to or graduates from college or has a pre-existing medical condition.

   Affordable: The plan involves NO NEW SPENDING on health care. The system will be paid for by federal, state and county monies already being spent on health care and by affordable insurance premiums that replace all premiums, deductibles, out-of-pocket payments and co-pays now paid by employers and consumers.

   Efficient: CHIRA eliminates waste by consolidating the functions of many insurance companies into one comprehensive insurance plan, saving the state and consumers billions of dollars each year. Currently it’s estimated that half of every dollar spent on health care is squandered on clinical and administrative waste, insurance company profits, and overpriced pharmaceuticals. CHIRA is based on a model that has been estimated to save California about $20 billion through reduced administrative costs in the first year alone.

   Under CHIRA, California will use its huge purchasing power to buy prescription drugs and durable medical equipment in bulk. CHIRA is the sole health reform that enables California to use its full purchasing power to negotiate the deepest savings. It has been estimated that this model of systemwide bulk purchasing could save California $5.2 billion in the first year .

   Most importantly, CHIRA will make our health care system more reliable and secure by stabilizing the growth in health spending; linking spending increases to state GDP and population growth, employment rates and other relevant demographic indicators. CHIRA will combine needed cost controls with medical standards that use the best available medical science, and place an emphasis on preventative and primary care to improve California’s overall health in a way that also saves billions of dollars.

   High Quality: Under CHIRA, consumers have total freedom to choose their personal primary care provider. Health care providers and facilities will receive fair reimbursement for all covered services they provide. CHIRA utilizes proven financial incentives that support the delivery of high quality care, including bonuses for providers working in rural or under-served areas. The plan invests in needed health care infrastructure such as electronic claims and reimbursement systems and statewide medical databases that improve health care quality .

   Benefits: Coverage includes all care prescribed by a patient’s health care provider that meets accepted standards of care and practice. Specifically, coverage includes hospital, medical, surgical, and mental health; dental and vision care; prescription drugs and medical equipment, such as hearing aids; emergency care including ambulance; skilled nursing care after hospitalization; substance abuse recovery programs; health education and translation services, including services for those with hearing and vision impairments; transportation needed to access covered services, diagnostic testing; and hospice care.

   CHIRA offers California a broad and clear vision for a remodeled health care system that will provide high quality I affordable and reliable health care for all residents.

SB 810 started 5 years ago as SB 840 sponsored by Senator Sheila Kuehl, and it was vetoed twice by Schwarzenegger. Now supported by Senator Mark Leno, it is the most vetted, polished and researched healthcare reform bill anywhere and California OneCare and its supporting organizations have are putting into effect a very elaborate three year plan to inform the public and support the passage. It does involve electing a Governor that supports the bill next November, but that is a whole other story.

The bill itself is not difficult to read. No need to be wonkish to understand it.

SB 810

It essentially establishes a government run health insurance company.  Good bye and good riddance to all current expensive and dysfunctional private insurance companies.

     140000.  There is hereby established in state government the

   California Healthcare System, which shall be administered by the

   California Healthcare Agency, an independent agency under the control

   of the Healthcare Commissioner.

     140000.6.  No health care service plan contract or health

   insurance policy, except for the California Healthcare System plan,

   may be sold in California for services provided by the system.

How you can help;

Vote for California OneCare at Change.org.  If it wins in the healthcare category it will get a lot of visibility.

If you are a healthcare and or a California blogger, please help get the word out.

You can also join California OneCare or at least join its newly activated Facebook page.

Together we can do it!

(The difference between winning and losing in 2010 isn’t the mushy middle. The difference is the base. And this is a good start. – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

California’s Senate Appropriations Cmte passed Mark Leno’s SB 810 out of committee, and the Senate will vote on it next week.  (UPDATE: make that this week.  Started this diary on weekend.)  Leno says that the timing is coincidental and not a response to the Brown debacle, but it works for me.  SB 810 would create a single-payer, universal health care system in California.

You’ll be shocked to learn that Republicans are framing this as Democrats Out of Touch, and it’s possible that SB810’s supporters will get wobbly.  Two things need to happen:

Call the California Senators Calderon, Correa, and Wright and let them know that saving the state billions in waste and fraud is still politically viable – contact info on the flip.

Push back on the corporate narrative – talking points and media links on the flip.

Attack attack attack.  If you’re not a constituent, call them anyway.  Let them know that California can show the rest of the country that Democrats understand we want universal healthcare.

Action Alert on SB 810 (Leno) Single Payer Universal Health Care Bill

from California School Employees Association (full disclosure, this is my employer)

<[The] … single payer universal health care system in California, SB 810, is up for a crucial vote in the Senate this week and we need your help.

SB 810 is real health care reform that we desperately need in California. It would provide affordable, comprehensive health care to all Californians and would allow them to choose their own doctors.  Under this bill, nobody could be denied coverage because they had a pre-existing condition, and they would not lose their coverage if they changed jobs or went away to college.

SB 810 will be voted on by the full state Senate in the coming days.  We need your help in contacting three Senators whose vote may be important to the passage of SB 810.

Please make sure you use the following points when you contact the following two Senators:



• Thank you for your prior support of single payer universal health care.

• SB 810 is the new single payer bill and will come before you for a vote on the Senate Floor in the coming days.

• SB 810 is true health care reform that will cover every Californian and provides us comprehensive, affordable and quality health care.

• I am asking you to continue to support single payer health care and vote “YES” on SB 810.

Senator Ron Calderon (Montebello)

Phone: 916-651-4030

Email: [email protected]    

Senator Lou Correa (Santa Ana)

Phone: 916-651-4034

Email: [email protected]

For Senator Wright the message is:

• I am asking you to vote for SB 810 that would create a single payer universal health care system in California.

• This bill will come before you for a vote on the Senate Floor in the coming days.

• SB 810 is true health care reform that will cover every Californian and provides us comprehensive, affordable and quality health care.

• We need this bill and we need it now.  Please vote “YES” on SB 810.

Senator Rod Wright (Los Angeles)

Phone: 916-651-4025

Email: [email protected]

This final push in the Senate is very important to the passage of SB 810 and keeping real health care reform efforts alive in California.  Thank you!

OK, you’ve taken care of the legislators.  On to the media:

Articles on SB810 here, here, and here.

Ammo for your blog or Letter to the Editor:

I am writing to respond to your recent article on the passage of single payer universal health care in the California Legislature.

It’s about time that someone stood up to the insurance companies and banks and I am thankful that there are some legislators in Sacramento standing up for the people by standing up to insurance companies.  

The real reason average people are so upset about health reform is that we want our elected representatives to listen to us instead of insurance company lobbyists who have run our health care system into the ground.

I have watched as health insurance companies raise our premiums, impose huge co-payments and deductibles and then lower our coverage at the same time.  Health care is now an unaffordable luxury for middle class America, and we are losing jobs to Canada because our health care costs are so much higher.

I am tired of paying twice as much as every other nation for health care while we live at the mercy of heartless insurance companies who take 30% off the top and then deny us care whenever they can.  It’s time to get rid of the insurance company middleman.

California legislators need to listen to the voices of millions of Californians who have no health coverage.  California legislators need to listen to the voices of millions more who have insurance but can’t access it because of growing deductibles, co-payments or other insurance company games.  

I urge California legislators to support the California Universal Health Care Act.  The people are desperate for true courageous leadership on health reform.

Other suggestions:

California’s budget crisis is directly linked to rising health care costs.  Health care for teachers, police officers, firefighters, transit workers face annual increases that are much higher than wages.  Do the math!

SB 810 is a public private partnership where everyone pays into a universal health care plan and then everyone chooses their own private doctors and hospitals.  It’s been proven to save California families and employers billions of dollars in the first year.  It works by taking the money we already spend on health care and then getting rid of the wasteful insurance company bureaucracy that stands between us and our doctor.  

Thank you!

Crossposted at dKos

(A great recap of the CDP Convention. If you aren’t following Sweet Melissa, you’re missing out on some of the most insightful SF political commentary on the web. – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

Constant Readers,

In my final post about the California Democratic Convention, Ima write about the saga of Carole Migden and Mark Leno and the fight over who would and (perhaps, more importantly) who would not get the Democratic party endorsement for the District 3 State Senate seat.

Saturday

I’ve already written about Friday night, so let’s start with Saturday. Over breakfast, I wrote a post about Migden’s public display of lunacy on Friday night, then dealt with the proxy fiasco. After that, Beth and Brian D. (also proxies) arrived in San Jose and a group of us met up for lunch before we had to go vote. In anticipation of a boring afternoon, the booze flowed liberally as we debated the difference between a “nerd” and a “dork” – which is only something a bunch of nerdy dorks would do. Then we ambled on over to the convention center to engage in some Sauvignon Blanc-fueled heckling.

Here’s how it works: before all of the CA delegates vote on whether to endorse a candidate, the candidate’s Region has to hold an election to endorse the candidate. In this case it was Region 4 whose delegates needed to vote to endorse Migden or Leno. As the incumbent, Migden only needed 50% + 1 of the number of votes cast by delegates. As the challenger, Leno needed 70% +1 of the total number of votes cast by Region 4 delegates to get the endorsement.

It took forever to register to get in to do the Regional vote and Bethy and I passed the time by making fun of people and thinking up new ways to complain about how long everything was taking. We also ran into some familiar faces like Chris Daly and Sarah Low and their two ridiculously adorable children.

As you can imagine, the passive-aggressive “sign wars” were on tilt.  Ultimately Migden won the Regional endorsement with 150 votes to Mark Leno’s 115 and one idiot voted for Joe Nation even though Monsieur Nation didn’t bother to show up.

Normally when a Region votes to endorse a candidate, the matter of whether the rest of the state delegates will vote to endorse the candidate is a done deal. For that reason, regional endorsements go on what is called a “consent calendar” to be considered by all the state delegates on Sunday. The consent calendar consists of a bunch of procedural stuff that does not merit debate. However, Leno’s people went to work on Saturday night getting enough signatures to pull the Region 4 Migden endorsement off of the consent calendar so it would be voted on separately by the entire body of delegates on Sunday. They needed 300, and got over 600 signatures (unofficial count). Sunday’s vote would be interesting. In the meantime, there was dining, drinking, dancing and debating to do with Beth Spotswood, Brian Devine, Luke Thomas, Brian Leubitz, Bob Brigham and Mark Leno.  

SUNDAY

I was in sorry shape on Sunday morning. Nevertheless, I had to go to registration early and turn back over my Kamala credentials because she wanted to vote in the main Leno/Migden event. So, I became Erin again and set up my computer on the press podium next to a writer from the L.A. Times. Hungover, not-Kamala and sitting next to a real journalist, I just wanted the day to be over. Unfortunately, the convention planners seem to believe that democracy includes giving every party official, delegate and janitor the chance to give a speech.

After being told all day that the Leno/Migden vote was “about to happen”- at about 1 pm it finally began. Each candidate had two minutes to make a statement. Someone from the United Farm Workers (whose name I couldn’t hear) spoke for Migden and then Migden made a quick statement. Then it was Leno’s turn. Karen Bass spoke for Leno briefly and then Leno made a short statement, too. Kamala Harris stood at Leno’s side during the statements.  

Overruling the Region 4 vote and preventing the party endorsement of Migden required a simple majority. The final tally was 298 in favor of keeping the Migden endorsement and 742 opposed. (Even Leno supporters were like “daaaaaaamn!”) So, no Democratic party endorsement for Migden – which means no $1.5 million of party money for her campaign, or bail, or whatever.

Note that Leno doesn’t have the endorsement now either (someone made a motion on Sunday that would have resulted in a Leno endorsement but that move requires 75% approval and he only got 60%).  

Procedural maneuvers, local politicos and great friends – it was Nerdtopia. Where can I sign up to go again next year?

–Melissa  

In some ways, I’m actually glad that there’s a contest for state Senate in San Francisco; Democracy is not a bad thing, even in so-called “safe” districts.

But the race between Mark Leno and Carole Migden has gotten ugly — really ugly — in a way that it doesn’t have to.

Let’s quit with the Fox-TV-style talk, while we still can.