Message from the Editor re Healthcare/Update on Single Payer:*
One week ago the House of Representatives passed their latest version of the AHCA that not only robs Medicare and ends MediCal expansion, totally defunds Planned Parenthood on which millions of women depend for reproductive care, reinstates excluding people with pre-existing conditions (which outrageously includes SEXUAL ASSAULT, a particularly depraved inclusion), and removes mental health and addiction treatment as essential health benefits. This bill epitomizes the depths to which for-profit healthcare can sink in its pursuit of greed as it targets the most vulnerable--children, elders, the disabled--and is especially aimed at women (did I mention it also ends maternal care)? The AHCA is an extremely offensive piece of legislation for anyone who cares about ethical healthcare. For more information see: https://www.thenationalcouncil.org/capitol-connector/2017/05/3216/
This is a serious crisis, to which the answer is not a patched-up Affordable Care Act, which leaves the profiteering insurance companies and pharmaceuticals in charge and offers basically catastrophic coverage, once the high premiums and high deductibles are figured into the equation. The only economically sensible and humane choice is Single Payer/ Medicare-for-All, and luckily we have a great bill in the California Senate, SB 562, which will put an end to privatized healthcare and cover everyone for everything, and put providers back in charge of healthcare.
We have a very narrow window however to get this passed as it must pass the Appropriations Committee and then be brought for a floor vote before the end of May when the legislative session ends, so if you agree that it is high time that healthcare be put back in the hands of providers and our clients, please help by calling our California state senators and telling them to vote for SB 562, and by calling the members of the Appropriations Committee and telling them to vote for SB 562! Here are their names and numbers:
Senate Appropriations Committee:
916/651-4033 - Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair - author of SB 562
916/651-4036 - Senator Patricia Bates, Vice-Chair
916/651-4015 - Senator Jim Beall
916/651-4013 - Senator Jerry Hill
916/651-4044 - Senator Jim Nielson
916/651-4035 - Senator Steven Bradford
916/651-4011 - Senator Scott Wiener
Senate Districts, 20, 23, and 28
20 – Connie Leyva – 916-651-4020
23 – Mike Morrell – 916-651-4023
28 – Jeff Stone – 916-651-4028
If you don't know your senate district, go to this link: State Representatives where you can find both your California senator and your Assemblymember. We need to call our representatives in the California Assembly and tell them to vote yes as well. For most of us in the Inland Empire that person is Chad Mayes of the 42nd Assembly District. His phone number is: 916-319-2042.
*This message reflects the opinion of the newsletter editor, Carol A. Bouldin, LMFT who is not writing on behalf of the IE-CAMFT Board or Chapter, but who is expressing her own personal opinion.
