The Speaker's & Governor's Healthcare Bill December 17, 2007
As I write, the Assembly has just passed Speaker Fabian Nuñez’ healthcare bill and it’s on its way to the Senate and a hearing in the Senate Heath Committee in January. A number of people have called and emailed asking for my take on the bill and this essaywill give some analysis.
Senator Kuehl's Statement on AB 8 read >> September 10, 2007
Health Reform and Magical Thinking read >> August 31, 2007
California Speaks: We Want Single Payer read>> August 16, 2007
Informational Briefing: “SiCKO” What Has Happened to Health Care? video>> June 12th, 2007
In recognizing that for-profit insurance is incompatible with a caring, a moral and a high-quality health care system that provides coverage for all, Senator Kuehl is leading the fight to break the industry’s death grip on our health care system. I believe the people are on your side.
--Michael Moore
Photo: Michael Moore speaks at a Legislative Briefing hosted by Senator Sheila Kuehl. Photo by Lorie Shelley.
SB 840, the California Universal Healthcare Act, is California’s plan to establish a system of health insurance to cover all residents of the state with comprehensive benefits, stabilize growth in health care spending, improve the quality of care and guarantee the right of every Californian to choose his or her own physician.
Universal health care is possible. Polls are showing that 60% of Californians now support a publicly funded universal health care system over the current system. The conversation is steering away from whether we need to enact such a system in favor of how. SB 840, the California Universal Healthcare Act, is a very important step forward in this because it answers the how.
SB 840 works by pooling our health care resources so everyone – state and federal government, income earners and employers - contributes something and we all get coverage. This allows us to consolidate the administrative functions of thousands of different insurance companies and plans into one comprehensive insurance plan, saving businesses and consumers, as well as the state, billions of dollars in the first year alone.
Spending this year for healthcare in California, including state, federal, and local funding (together, less than 50%), along with premiums paid by individuals, families and employers, co-pays and deductibles, totals over $186 billion dollars. That’s more than twice as much per person as nearly every other industrialized nation - per capita. Every other industrialized nation, however, has achieved universal health insurance, and so can we.
Please use the following links as a resource to find out more about universal health care and to spread the word in your community.
Thank you for your interest in SB 840. I look forward to working with you to establish universal healthcare insurance through a single payer system in California.
