[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Sheila Kuehl
Chair
California Senate Health Committee

According to the new statewide poll by the Field Institute, released Monday, the number of Californians who would prefer to receive their health care coverage “through the government” has risen by 9 percentage points since the last poll in 2006, and now stands at 31%, while those who prefer that individuals take responsibility for their own coverage dropped 6 percentage points to 20%, and those preferring employer sponsored coverage declined 4 percentage points to 38%,. “Government provided health coverage” was the only policy option showing an increase in support.

Since 2002, universal health care advocates have rallied around Senate Bill 840, the California Universal Health Care Act which I am proud to have introduced. These advocates have formed the OneCareNow coalition, made up of hundreds of supporting organizations around the state. The coalition has prioritized community education about universal health care and sponsored hundreds of public educational events throughout the year.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Jesse Douglas Allen-Taylor

Advocates of single payer health insurance in California are saying that the collapse of the Nuñez-Perata-Schwarzenegger health care bill is a good thing and are moving forward with reviving their own single-payer legislation.

“We were opposed to the Nuñez bill,” Vote Health representative Kay Eisenhower said by telephone this week. “We considered it a step backwards.”

Vote Health is an Alameda County-based health care activist organization.

Eisenhower said statewide single-payer health care advocates will be holding a two-day conference in Los Angeles later this month to talk about ways to put State Senator Sheila Kuehl’s (D-Santa Monica-Los Angeles) SB 840 single-payer health care bill back on track. “SB 840’s not dead,” she said. “It’s only on ice.”

Two years ago, it seemed dead. After SB 840 passed the state legislature in 2006, Gov. Schwarzenegger vetoed it.

Kuehl revived her single payer bill a year later, and the bill passed the Senate on a 23-15 vote and the Assembly Health Committee on a 12-5 vote last summer, but it stalled in the Assembly Appropriations Committee as attention in the Assembly turned to a compromise bill being put together by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Two of the state's major newspapers today are running editorials urging the State Senate to pass the Nunez/Perata health care plan.

The Bee writes:

"It doesn't happen often that a Republican governor comes together with Democrats to craft a health care overhaul that is supported by hospitals, business coalitions, health care advocates and right-minded unions and consumer groups. This is an opportunity that the Senate, and the state, can't afford to pass up. Pass AB X1 1. Don't blow this chance."

It also takes a well-deserved shots at opponents:

"To date, the California Nurses Association and the Foundation for Consumer and Taxpayer Rights have been the most relentless critics. They are snuggled up with some odd bedfellows. Lurking in the shadows is the tobacco industry, which has been lobbying to kill a key element of the plan -- a proposed tobacco tax that would help expand coverage. It's a sad day in Sacramento when nurses and self-styled consumer advocates are joining with cigarette merchants and some insurers to kill a delicately crafted deal on health care reform."

With a headline of "Health Care Inaction More Costly Option," The Mercury News also weighs in favor of AB 1x:

by Crystal Strait [courtesy of Party Line]

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

In yet another effort to thwart comprehensive health care reform this year, the California Nurses Association is blowing several hundred thousand dollars on direct mail advertising campaign targeted at Assembly Bill 8, the Democratic health care proposal being negotiated with Governor Schwarzenegger.
 
The mail piece, headlined "Deal or No Deal," picks up on the off-the-wall testimony of CNA officials before the Senate Health Committee a few weeks back. At the time, CNA executive director Donna Gerber claimed the reason Democrats wanted to pass AB 8 was because of health care and insurance industry contributions, and the prospect of extending term limits. Her bizarre testimony had health care advocates in the room shaking their heads in disbelief.
 
CNA supports SB 840, the single payer health care bill. They know full well that single payer is dead as a door nail this year, next year, and until there's a Democratic governor and legislature willing to find a few billion bucks and the political courage to enact it. Most progressives are on board with SB 840, but they know there's nothing on the horizon suggesting it will become law in California.

There's more...

by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics: Soapblox California - Front Page]

I bet you were wondering where Health Care Tuesdays went...but never fear.  So, I know I talked about doing the whole myth of moral hazard, but then I saw this article about one of my favorite state senators, Gil Cedillo (D-LA).

State Sen. Gil Cedillo was at his wit's end. Hospital officials were threatening to move his septuagenarian mother to another hospital because of an insurance snafu, and her family was not sure her heart was strong enough. Having lost his wife, Ruby, to cancer in 2002 after a long battle, Cedillo knows more than he cares to about the frustrations of navigating the health care system and dealing with insurance companies. Cedillo was able to resolve his mother's problem -- with the help of a highly placed former colleague... But health care advocates and providers say their stories illustrate that no one is exempt from the vagaries of the system. (SacBee 5/29/07) 

Flip it...