Opposition to California Healthcare Bill Grows

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Deborah Burger, R.N.
President of the California Nurses Association
President of the National Nurses Organizing Committee

With a major showdown coming today on the deeply flawed healthcare bill ABX1:1, the ranks of opposition are growing.

On Tuesday, I was pleased to join a press conference of a broad coalition of leading California unions and community groups, who came together to voice our common concerns about a bill that as several speakers said is not universal, primarily benefits the insurance industry, and would do little to protect California families against skyrocketing healthcare costs.

Subsequently, in a significant shift, the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO shifted its position on the bill to one of Not Support Unless Amended.

Further, the California Labor Federation endorsed a sweeping national healthcare bill, HR 676, that would establish a single-payer, guaranteed healthcare system, and is similar to a California single payer bill, SB 840.

The bill, a deal brokered by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, faces a critical hearing Wednesday in the Senate Health Committee tomorrow, Jan. 23, which is chaired by the state legislature’s foremost healthcare advocate Sen. Sheila Kuehl. She also is the author of SB 840, scheduled to be heard later this year in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. It has already passed the Senate.

One of the Senate Health Committee members, member, Sen. Leland Yee, joined our press conference and made an impassioned statement about the serious problems with the bill that he thinks could be harmful to residents of his San Francisco Senate district.