I will be discussing this and other state political issues on KRXA 540 AM at 8 this morning

Today I will be in San Francisco for the National Day of Protest against health insurance corporations and for truly universal health care – which only a single-payer system can provide. I wanted to take a moment and explain why I will be out there demonstrating against these criminals.

I currently do not have health insurance. My part-time job does not offer it and when I last looked into individual coverage I could not afford what was being offered to me. But more importantly, it’s not health insurance that I need – but health care. They are not the same thing. Health insurance companies have a long and ugly record of denying care and claims even to those they insure. We have discussed here the horrifying stories of Nataline Sarkisyan and Nick Colombo, young people whose insurers denied them life-saving treatment until protests forced them to back down. In Nataline’s case, as we will never forget, it came too late, and she died.

Courage Campaign (where I do some work) has partnered with the California Nurses Association and LA City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo to put out an ad lambasting insurance company practices. It’s based on the true story of Patsy Bates whose health insurance was canceled by HealthNet in the midst of her chemo treatments for breast cancer.

Speaking for myself, I see this ad and the protest at Moscone Center as fundamentally linked. Health insurance is a toxin, not a cure – the profit motive means that there will always be a desire to cut benefits, even in spite of government regulations (the recission practices Delgadillo is investigating are currently illegal under CA state law but they happen anyway).

Last year I was one of the leading voices on this blog against the mandated insurance plan proposed by Arnold and nearly passed by the legislature. It was not going to succeed in making health care more affordable and it was not going to succeed in making it more available. Mandated insurance plans haven’t worked anywhere they’ve been tried in the US, including in Massachusetts – whereas single-payer systems have a long record of success around the world.

We protest, we fund ads, we get outraged, and we fight because we believe health care to be a fundamental human right. Every one of us deserves to have it when they need it, without regard to cost. When someone gets sick their first thought should not be “how will I pay for this?”

As we debate specific health care reforms, that focus on human rights needs to remain at the center of our work. Health insurance companies inherently disagree with it – to them health care is something only those who can afford it deserve to have. It is that mentality that we fight against and protest against today. I’m not naive; single-payer health care will not be an easy political victory. But as polls continue to show growing support for it, and growing revulsion at insurance company practices, it can’t hurt to give Californians a reminder of why their health care is so screwed up – insurance companies are at the core of the problem. Today, we fight back.

Full disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign

Adapted from a post at the Courage Campaign blog.

Like so many others in California, The Courage Campaign has long championed the battle for affordable and accessible health care. It’s why Courage joined with a diverse coalition asking Terry McAuliffe to please don’t do it as we approach his high-priced speaking engagement in San Francisco for insurance executives tomorrow. And it’s why Courage partnered with the California Nurses Association and Senator Sheila Kuehl today to introduce our new “Insurance Jive” ad.

We’ve all been touched in one way or another by the catastrophic failure of the private insurance system.  Whether it’s ourselves, our family or friends, or diarists like CarlsbadDem, we’ve all seen the results of too many people sick and injured without recourse.  Heck, providing for the common welfare is right there in the Preamble to the Constitution. Like the ad says, it doesn’t have to be this way. The move for reasonable access to quality health care is growing stronger by the day and we need to keep up the momentum. The first $6,000 raised by the Courage Campaign via the ad’s ActBlue page will be matched by the California Nurses Association and Sen. Sheila Kuehl in order to get this ad on the air in San Francisco in the next 48 hours.

Earlier today, Rick Jacobs emailed Courage subscribers about the ad explaining just how much is at stake and and how much a small contribution to air this ad can accomplish:

Have you been dropped, denied or delayed?

Patsy Bates was dropped. Health Net canceled — or “rescinded” — Patsy’s health insurance policy after this 52-year-old grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer, forcing Patsy to halt chemotherapy for several months while piling up $129,000 in medical bills.

Unbelievable? Actually, the Patsy Bates case may be just scratching the surface. The Department of Managed Health Care is now reviewing thousands of other “rescissions” made by five major insurers operating in California: Health Net, Kaiser Permanente, Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Shield of California and PacifiCare.

We were so moved by Patsy’s story that we decided to create a 30-second TV ad for other people like Patsy who have been dropped, denied or delayed by their health insurance carrier in California.

But our television ad is not what you might expect. It’s not traditional. Or typical. It’s called “Insurance Jive” and it features a nurse (actor Beth Broderick of “Lost”) who — reminiscent of the Barbara Billingsley character in the 1980 movie “Airplane” — translates insurance jargon for a hospital patient and her husband.

Sounds funny, right? Well, “Insurance Jive” also packs a punch.

That’s why, together, the California Nurses Association and State Senator Sheila Kuehl have pledged to match the first $6,000 donated to place this powerful ad on the air in San Francisco in the next 48 hours — just as thousands of health insurance executives gather in the city for their annual convention.

Please watch “Insurance Jive” now and — if you like it — consider contributing what you can afford on ActBlue to help us make the $6,000 challenge match from CNA and Senator Kuehl:

http://www.couragecampaign.org/InsuranceJive

In the case of Patsy Bates, the good news is that a judge recently ordered Health Net to pay Patsy a whopping $9 million in mostly punitive damages.

But her victory is a rare blow to an industry that routinely seeks to profit at the expense — and physical well-being — of its customers. For example, according to the Los Angeles Times, Patsy’s lawsuit revealed that Health Net had “linked cancellations to employee performance goals,” an illegal policy that helped drive more than $35 million in denied claims between 2003 and 2006.

Fortunately, Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo has initiated a lawsuit and criminal investigation into Health Net’s decisions to drop, deny or delay health care, asserting that:

Countless Californians who believe they have insurance actually have policies that aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on. At a patient’s most vulnerable moment, the insurance company won’t pay for care, or will cancel the policy altogether. Industry schemes to maximize profits at the expense of patients are unfair and unlawful, and they must be stopped.

Rocky Delgadillo is talking to these corporations in a language they can easily understand: “lawsuit”. That’s why we created “Insurance Jive” to spread the word about the City Attorney’s helpful website for consumers.

Please watch this powerful new 30-second ad now. If you like it, please consider making a contribution on our ActBlue page so that we can put it on the air in San Francisco in the next 48 hours, for thousands of health insurance executives to see:

http://www.couragecampaign.org/InsuranceJive

We know this ad is provocative. And we know our letter to former DNC Chair Terry McAuliffe — in which 9,201 citizens asked him not to speak at, or take a speaking fee from, the AHIP (America’s Health Insurance Plans) convention — was provocative as well.

But we think it’s about time these powerful people were held accountable so that, in the future, seriously ill people like Patsy Bates do not end up in the “rescinded” column on a corporate spreadsheet.

If you agree, please forward this message to your friends right now. We don’t have much time to get this ad on the air while Terry McAuliffe and thousands of health insurance executives are gathering together in San Francisco.

Thank you, again, for helping us make 2008 a new era for progressive politics in California.

Rick Jacobs

Chair

P.S. As Senator Kuehl said in our press release: “The time is long past for insurance companies to stop killing and hurting people by refusing to pay for coverage. Until we get a single-payer system, we need Rocky Delgadillo and other leaders to stand up to the insurance industry with the full force of the law.”

We couldn’t agree more with Senator Kuehl. That’s why we created “Insurance Jive” and why we need your help to make the $6,000 challenge match she is making together with CNA. Please take 30 seconds to watch the ad and consider making a contribution on ActBlue to put it on the air ASAP:

http://www.couragecampaign.org/InsuranceJive

The California Nurses’ Association called today about the Yamada campaign, and it piqued my interest enough to check out Mariko Yamada and Christopher Cabaldon’s respective endorsement lists. While doing that, one noteworthy pair of endorsements for Yamada came from the California Nurses Association and SEIU United Healthcare Workers West, two unions who have not only been aggressive in pushing for a single payer health care plan for California, but who also stood up against Schwarzeneggar and the 2005 special election boondoggle back when the CA Democratic party was content to sit back and let Arnold run the state unimpeded.

On the issue of health care reform, the candidates are close but not identical. In a recent debate, Yamada backed Sheila Kuhl’s single payer health insurance plan pretty strongly, while Cabaldon gave it lip service, but like the CA Democratic leadership in last year’s health insurance negotiations, also left himself open to a compromise that fell short of single payer. As the Davis Vanguard reported at the time: [emphasis mine]

For Christopher Cabaldon he suggested that everyone is paying for the uninsured, even when we do not see it. He favors the Sheila Kuehl single payer health system as the ideal. However, he then argued that we must do something even it is not a single payer system. We cannot allow the perfect to be the enemy of the possible. Finally he argued that cuts in Medi-Cal are taking us in the wrong direction and it will make it impossible to find Medi-Cal providers who cover the disadvantaged. Mariko Yamada was also supportive of the Kuehl Bill and argued that if her supporter, Phil Angelides had been elected Governor, we would have it as law now. She is also willing to consider others but not as enthusiastically. Talked about the fact that social workers have supported single payer health system going back 50 years, back then, she quipped they were called Communists but now normal people also support such a system.

While Cabaldon has his fair share of union endorsements, the presence of that 2005 special election coalition of SEIU-UHWW, CNA, firefighters, police and teachers’ unions on Yamada’s endorsement list suggests that those unions don’t trust Cabaldon, even though he’s the front runner and as such would be easy enough to endorse. It’s not a matter of liberal versus conservative – both candidates are fairly liberal Democrats, well in the mainstream for the blue 8th AD – but it suggests that the battle over the shape of health care reform between establishment accommodationists and single payer advocates that scuttled the compromise last year is still simmering under the surface, and that CNA and SEIU-UHWW are doing some quiet primary work to try and actually get single payer passed as more than a symbolic bill, should the Democrats get a big enough majority in November to pass it over the governor’s veto.

Or maybe I’m just seeing things.

originally at surf putah

Watch this video of Registered Nurse Sally Baker and her Catholic Health Partners (CHP) colleagues in Ohio describe the exhilaration they felt when–after three long years–they finally got the chance for a free and fair union election at their hospitals. Their feelings turned to shock and dismay when dozens of California Nurses Association (CNA) organizers flew to Ohio, urging them to vote “no” for a stronger voice through SEIU.

Hear directly from the affected workers how CNA’s “vote no” campaign shattered their hopes of forming a union and gaining a stronger voice for their patients.  

Watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…  

And to learn more about what CHP nurses and other caregivers have been doing to expose the truth about CNA’s anti-union efforts, go to www.ShameOnCNA.com.  

The eyes of the nation are upon Pennsylvaia, but there's still a lot going on right here in California.  So, here are a few stories of note:

• (SacBee) Remember that big plan to privatize the lottery that was going to bring in billions upon billions of dollars? Well, it turns out that potential bidders don't really like the way our lottery works, and want us to make some changes before they'll pony up. Of course, that requires a vote of the people, so it might be a while before Arnold's billions come rolling in.
• (LA Times) A federal court is hearing a class action lawsuit against the VA alleging gross incompetence. Over 120 veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan commit suicide, while the backlog for services grows.  Good to see that the Bush Administartion supports the troops on TV, too bad they don't do it in real life.
• (SF Chron) The fight between CNA and SEIU continues in court today, with SEIU arguing that CNA's restraining order violated the rules against SLAPP suits, thus infringing their first amendment rights.
• The board (CCCC) that regulates salaries for elected officials meets at 10AM in Van Nuys. A note to you legislators out there, don't expect big pay hikes today. (h/t CapAlert)
• Arnold has now dropped over $1.25 million into the redistricting initiative, and is hosting a fundraiser tonight. And, of course, he convinced his good friend “independent” Michael Bloomberg to drop $250K in as well. And oh, by the way, he still clings to the notion that McCain can win California. I think he should have a chat with Maria.
• (SR P-D) Gas is expensive. Thanks for the insight there. I couldn't tell that by looking out the window, I need the media to confirm it for me. Incidentally, McCain's Dole-retread idea of pausing the gas tax would be disastrous for our infrastructure needs, and it's not clear that the oil companies would even pass the savings on to the consumer. Obama calls him out on it.

What else is going on?