Consumer Federation of California

Bill Update: Senator Mark Leno’s Universal Health Care Act passed the Senate Appropriations Committee on January 21st, 2010 and the Senate Health Committee by a vote of 7-4 on April 15, 2009. SB 810 now moves to the Senate Floor.

CFC Position: Support

SB 810 (Leno) is a landmark bill that insures health care for all Californians. The private insurance system is collapsing. Skyrocketing premiums are a crushing burden for employers. More and more businesses are shifting costs to workers, or simply eliminating coverage. Forty seven million Americans are uninsured’most live in a household with a working adult.

Health care is a right, not a privilege’and every Californian deserves access to high quality, affordable health coverage.  Forcing the uninsured to pay unaffordable insurance premiums with high deductibles for inadequate health coverage isn’t the answer.  Individual mandates and Health Savings Accounts would force more Californians to pay most of their actual health care bills from their own pockets, rather than by their insurance coverage.

Health care should be guaranteed and insured by government. SB 810 would provide every
California resident medical, dental, vision, hospitalization and
prescription drug benefits. Putting an emphasis on prevention and
primary health care, SB 810 invests in modern technologies and
infrastructure that help improve care and reduce costs.

The plan also
reduces administrative waste and utilizes California’s purchasing power
to realize savings on prescriptions and medical equipment.

For all these reasons, the Consumer Federation of California urges an AYE on SB 810.

Click here to read the text of the bill.

Watch some of the highlights from the single payer rally in Sacramento held by the California Health Professional Student Alliance on January 12th, 2010: