[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Ben Malley

The fight for a single-payer universal healthcare system continued yesterday outside of Moscone Center. Inside was the conference of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), a lobbying group of more than 1,300 private health insurance companies. In 2006, the organization spent more than $7 million on lobbying efforts. Outside, more than 1,000 people voiced support of State Senator Sheila Kuehl’s SB 840 and Congressman John Conyers’ HR 676, both of which would establish single-payer healthcare.

Also inside was Terry McAuliffe. The former Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair and most recently former campaign manager for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential run, spoke between 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. His topic: Decision 2008: The Politics of Healthcare.

A sampling of other speakers at the event included such infamous notables as former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, former counselor to President Bush, Dan Bartlett (who spoke alongside McAuliffe) and former Health and Human Services secretary under the Bush Administration, Tommy Thompson.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

•SB1522 to ban junk insurance passes Assembly Health Committee
•AB1945 would impose new rules on insurers who cancel insurance policies
•AB2967 to collect cost and quality data from medical providers passes

By Hanh Kim Quach
Health Care Policy Coordinator
Health Access California

Key bills of interest to health advocates were heard in the last two days, in, respectively, the Assembly Health Committee, chaired by Assemblymember Mervyn Dymally, and Senate Health Committee, chaired by Senator Sheila Kuehl.

Hundreds of bills that passed the house where they were introduced must now clear the second house; and the first step of that is to pass policy committees by June 27. A number of bills that would benefit health care consumers were in Assembly and Senate Health committees this week, including a number of key bills that would lay the foundation for comprehensive health reform in the next couple of years. An updated list of bills is available on the Health Access website.

by Lucas O'Connor [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

Marcy Winograd
California Democratic Party Executive Board Representative
41st Assembly District

Some wore Obama t-shirts, a few mourned Hillary’s exit, but the majority just talked about taking back our country from those who took us to war.

Meeting near San Francisco last weekend, representatives to the California Democratic Party Executive Board, planned neighbor-to-neighbor voter outreach campaigns, passed resolutions calling for the elimination of water boarding and torture, and looked to the future – not just in Washington, but also in Sacramento, as gubernatorial hopefuls came calling.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

State Senator Sheila Kuehl's single payer health care bill would cost California more than $210 billion and leave the state saddled with more than $40 billion more in debt in one year, according to a report by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst noted in an article today by the Sacramento Bee's Dan Weintraub.

That compares to the LAO's projection of a $1.5 billion deficit from legislation passed by Assembly Democrats and favored by Gov. Schwarzenegger. That legislation died in Senator Kuehl's Health Committee, with several senators expressing concerns about that cost.

To put that in perspective, the state is currently wrestling with a $17 billion operating deficit. And no one seems to know how that gap will be closed. Kuehl's single-payer bill would more than double that debt.

Weintraub notes that "Kuehl's current bill does specify a financing scheme," and the Senator admits the financing would be impossible to get through the legislature.

There's more...

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

Beats Assemblymember Lloyd Levine by Two-to-One

By Frank D. Russo

Fran Pavley, (pictured at right) served three terms in the California State Assembly before having to leave because of term limits, has decisively won the Democratic primary and will be returning to the State Senate to succeed Sheila Kuehl in representing the parts of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties, including the San Fernando Valley and Beverly Hills, West Hollywood and the Westside of Los Angeles.

by thereisnospoon [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Disclaimer: I volunteer as the Netroots Outreach Coordinator for the Mary Pallant Campaign

Mary Pallant's campaign (which I have written about here, here, here and elsewhere) got a big new boost today: the endorsement of progressive CA State Senator Sheila Kuehl.