"August 28, 2017

Healthy California Response to Speaker Rendon’s Select Committee on Healthcare

The Healthy California campaign formed in February of this year to move forward the Healthy California Act -SB 562 (Lara & Atkins) in light of the aggressive federal attacks on our healthcare. During the last six months we have grown support for SB 562 to over 650 organizations and more than 6 million Californians.
We know that with or without a vote in Congress, Trump and GOP leaders have already set into motion actions that unravel the Affordable Care Act and that are leading to Covered California rate increases of up to 30% in many areas around the state. As we have seen nationally and in California, the grassroots are calling for a single payer solution and standing up for healthcare as a right. It is in this context that we see urgency in moving forward SB 562, which would guarantee healthcare to all California residents including: medical, dental, vision, mental health, prescription drugs and much more.

In June, Speaker Rendon “decided SB 562 will remain in the Assembly Rules Committee until further notice,” putting on hold the only real solution to our healthcare crisis. Last Thursday, the Speaker announced that he is creating a "Select Committee" on universal coverage. While the Committee’s creation is a clear reaction to the statewide pressure from our campaign and grassroots supporters, it’s important to note that this Committee cannot vote on SB 562 or amendments to the bill. Instead it continues to delay the legislative process. We are concerned that given the influence of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries on the legislature, this Select Committee will not be accessible to Californians who suffer under our current healthcare system. The Healthy California campaign insists that this Select Committee must hold hearings that are fully accessible to all Californians, by holding evening and weekend meetings in locations around the state, including rural areas, major metropolitan cities and which are broadcast for those who cannot attend in person.

Health care policy and creating a new healthcare system are complex issues, especially in a state
comprising the fifth largest global economy. These issues deserve robust legislative debate through a
democratic process via public hearings in the Assembly. We need to have this debate through the
established democratic process via public hearings in the Assembly, and have amendments prepared to be
added to the bill during that process. However, we will participate in the hearings of the Select Committee
and urge that the goal of the Committee be to address any concerns with the current bill, and return it to
the Assembly as soon as possible.

It is clear that the grassroots support for single payer cannot be stopped and our campaign to pass SB 562
very much continues. We are talking to Californians at their doors and in their neighborhoods in every
corner of the Golden State. The people of California cannot wait. The point is to achieve healthcare justice
through a system of guaranteed healthcare that puts patients before profits. Let that be our guiding light.

Phone:
800.745.3090
Web: HealthyCA.org
770 L Street, Suite 1480
Sacramento, CA 95814
HEALTHY CALIFORNIA"

"Speaker Rendon Calls on Assembly Committee to ‘Get to Yes’ on Health Care for All

 

SACRAMENTO — Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) today announced that Dr. Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno) and Dr. Jim Wood (D-Healdsburg), the chairs of the Assembly Select Committee on Health Care Delivery Systems and Universal Coverage, will hold ongoing hearings beginning in the legislative interim so the committee can develop plans for achieving universal health care in California.

 

“The fight to protect the Affordable Care Act helped galvanize the principle that health care is a basic right,” Rendon said. “There are several different approaches being proposed, including Medicare for all, single payer, hybrid systems and ACA expansion. I have called for these hearings to determine what approach best gets us there – what gets us to ‘yes’ when it comes to health care for all.”

 

Speaker Rendon stressed that the hearings would not simply go back over information covered in the past, but will provide a new opportunity to determine the best and quickest path forward toward universal health care. Overcoming potential federal and constitutional obstacles, ensuring delivery of care, and examining funding mechanisms will all be part of the committee’s purview.

 

“It’s not a question of debating whether we move toward health care for all – it’s a matter of choosing how best and how soon,” Rendon said. “The committee’s work will help fill the void of due diligence that should have been done on SB 562 or any universal health care bill that so profoundly affects so many Californians.”

 

“It is my direction that these hearings be focused and thorough, and produce real results,” Rendon said. “In addition to the oaths they took as legislators, Dr. Wood and Dr. Arambula have also taken oaths to protect and defend patients’ health, so I know they will take a vigorous approach to this challenge, and the committee will begin the heavy lifting needed to advance serious proposals for health care for all.”

 

Website of Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon: https://speaker.asmdc.org/"

From the Richmond Progressive Alliance e-newsletter 8/5/17:

Let's keep up the pressure for single payer in CA!

What ever happened to the single payer bill in California? Read on for this update from Healthy California (with thanks to RPA Steering Committee member Alyssa Kang, California Nurses Association, for passing this on):

On June 23^rd Speaker Anthony Rendon chose to stall SB 562, the Healthy California Act, putting it on hold in the Assembly Rules Committee instead of moving it forward to a committee for a hearing, vote, and where amendments could be made. Friday, July 14th was the last day Speaker Rendon could move the bill forward under the regular Assembly timeline rules…and he didn’t. But we are far from done. Speaker Rendon still has the power to move the bill forward until mid-September by suspending the regular rules.

This means SB 562 is still alive and well but needs your help to make sure Speaker Rendon and our Assemblymembers choose guaranteeing healthcare and ending the suffering so many Californians experience from crushing medical debt and lack of access to healthcare.  Our incredible grassroots movement has the power to move this bill by moving our elected leaders.

Here are 2 ways you can help SB 562 move forward!

1. Call your Assemblymember Until They Join the Fight for SB 562!

Dial 1-855-271-8515 and enter your zip code to be connected directly to your Assemblymember. Here’s what you can say:  "Insurance companies continue to be a middleman profiting off healthcare as Californians suffer. The Healthy California Act (SB 562) would remove the insurance middleman and save $37 billion a year while guaranteeing medical, dental, vision and more. Do you support taking insurance companies out of healthcare? Will you co-author SB 562 and support moving the Healthy California Act forward this year so we can?”  

2. Get involved!  

Contact your local regional coordinator to find out how to get active locally (find them at healthycaliforniaact.org/find-regional-coordinator), and get social on our Facebook and Twitter pages.

Here are some links to some good articles re Single Payer:  Biggest Opponents of Single Payer

medicare-for-all-wins-backing-of-conservative-southern-democrats

single-payer-fight-moves-to-massachusetts

and an amusing video re healthcare: Guaranteed Healthcare Rocks!

Call to Action!

Everyone, we have had a setback in our quest to pass SB 562, the Healthy California Act, to provide Single Payer healthcare to everyone in California.  On Friday, the Speaker of the Assembly, Anthony Rendon, announced that he would stall (and effectively kill for 2017) the bill in the Assembly Rules Committee, which he claims as due to supposed "flaws" in the bill that need to be worked out.

We need to call, email, tweet, post messages on Facebook and demand that he get the bill out of the Rules Committee onto the Assembly floor for any needed amendments and for a vote. Below is his contact info:

Anthony Rendon, Speaker of the Assembly 
916-319- 2063
Twitter: @Rendon63rd assemblymember.rendon@assembly.ca.gov

District Office:

12132 South Garfield Avenue
South Gate, CA 90280
Tel: (562) 529-3250
Fax: (562) 529-3255

When sending an email, please send a copy to: info@healthycaliforniaact.org so they can track it as well.

Also, please call your own assemblymember and urge them to apply pressure to the speaker to get the bill out of committee for a vote and urge your representative to vote YES.

Some Inland Empire representatives in the Assembly are listed below. 

District 33 (mountain area):

Jay Obernolte - 916/319-2033

District 40 (Redlands, Highland area):

Marc Steinorth - 916/319-2040

District 42 (Yucaipa to Palm Desert--huge district):

Chad Mayes - 916/319-2042

District 47 (Colton, Rialto, etc.):

Eloise Reyes - 916/319-2047

District 60 (Jurupa Valley, Corona, etc.):

Sabrina Cervantes - 916/319-2060

District 61 (Riverside, Moreno Valley, Perris):

Jose Medina - 916/319-2061

District 67 (Menifee, Lake Elsinore, Murrieta):

Melissa Melendez - 916/319-2067

In order to find your specific Assembly rep, go to: http://assembly.ca.gov/assemblymembers

Also, here are a couple of good articles about the current push:

 California Fails Leadership Test on Health Care

•  Outrage Aimed at Democrat Who Pulled Plug on California's Single-Payer Bill

 

Thank you all for your help with this!

The California Division of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy has unanimously endorsed/supported SB 562. Now the CAMFT board needs to endorse it! The CAMFT Insurance and Healthcare Reform Committee voted "support" for SB562 and the Legislative Committee voted "watch," which is between "oppose" and "support." If you agree that CAMFT needs to join AAMFT-CA, NASW-CA, PNHP, California Physicians Alliance, and the California Nurses Association in actively supporting and endorsing Single Payer healthcare, please write to the board at board@camft.org and urge CAMFT to support and push for its passage.

Hello everyone,

Great news!  SB 562, the Single Payer bill in the California Senate, also known as The Healthy California Act, has passed the Senate yesterday, June 1st!  Now we need to make sure that it passes the Assembly and that the governor signs it into law.  We also need to contact the CAMFT board at board@camft.org and urge the board to push for its passage.  There is no reason for them not to endorse it, especially as now we have the financial study back that shows that it will SAVE billions of dollars, not cost us more money. 

See: SB 562 Would Cut State Spending on Healthcare by 18%

SB 562 has passed the California Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday!  It will now progress to the Senate floor for a vote and we have one week to get it passed by the Senate before the end of the legislative session (June 2).

So if you can, please call as many senators as possible and urge them to support it, and if you have postcards, get as many people you know to send them in.  Since it is a bill which has a significant fiscal impact, it must pass with a 2/3 majority so we need it to pass overwhelmingly so that it can also reach an even more stringent requirement should Brown decide to listen to the insurance lobby and veto it. For a list of senators, go to: http://senate.ca.gov/senators

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.

It is urgent that we contact the members of the Senate Health Committee and ask them to vote for the Single Payer bill so it can go to the floor for a hearing on April 26^th.  Please help get the Healthy California Act (SB 562) passed by the California Senate Health Committee! Here's how: 

1. Call members of the Senate Health Committee (except not Senator Hernandex, who's been flooded with calls), and politely urge them to support the Healthy California Act (SB 562).

Senator Janet Nguyen (Vice Chair) (916) 651-4034
Senator Connie M. Leyva  (916) 651-2020
Senator Holly J. Mitchell  (916) 651-4030 
Senator Bill Monning  (916) 651-4017
Senator Josh Newman  (916) 651-4029
Senator Jim Nielsen  (916) 651-4004
Senator Richard D. Roth  (916) 651-4031

2. On Monday 4/24 or Tuesday 4/25 call and ask your own district legislator to support SB 562, the Healthy California Act. Click here to find your rep based on your address.
Simply say "I am your constituent and I want you to pass SB 562 to get guaranteed healthcare for every Californian!!