Historic Rally for Single-Payer Healthcare
historic May 8 rally in Sacramento in support Sen. Sheila Kuehl’s
ground-breaking SB840, which proposes guaranteed healthcare on a
single-payer model, and against Governor Schwarzenegger’s proposal to
increase insurance industry revenue and control over healthcare.
The rally is sponsored by the California Nurses
Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee in conjunction with
the California School Employees Association, California Federation of
Teachers, California Professional Firefighters, California Faculty
Association, California Alliance for Retired American, California
Council of Churches Church IMPACT, Consumer Federation of California,
Health for All, and the California Physicians Alliance. State Sen.
Sheila Kuehl will address the rally and call for the passage of her
bill
SB 840 to establish a guaranteed healthcare system similar to
"Medicare for All" with genuine universal coverage, comprehensive and
uniform benefits, effective cost controls, and an end to insurance
industry interference with delivery of care.
What: Massive Rally for Guaranteed Healthcare
When: Tuesday, May 8, 12 Noon
Where: California State Capitol North Steps, Sacramento
"Nurses
have fought insurance companies, HMOs, hospital chains, and anyone else
who would let our patients suffer from inadequate care. Genuine reform,
like SB 840, is the only effective way to ensure we achieve the humane
healthcare system Americans want and deserve," said Deborah Burger, RN,
and CNA/NNOC president.
"Sadly, many of the school employees I work with never get to
see a nurse. That’s because they don’t have health insurance. Over the
past two decades, thousands of school employees throughout our state
have lost their school district health benefits. Our schools and
colleges are being squeezed by outrageous insurance rate hikes, and
like everyone else they are paying more money for fewer benefits," said
Michael Mazzanti, from CSEA. Mazzanti is the lead custodian for
Cloverdale High School in Sonoma County. He serves on the board of
directors of the California School Employees Association as the Area B
director.
In conjunction with the event, CNA/NNOC will debut
GuaranteedHealthcare.org, an online campaign that will feature videos
of patients telling their stories of abuse, injury and mistreatment at
the hands of a medical industry driven by corporate rather than human
needs. Patients will have the power to upload and share their own
stories, a crucial tool in building a grassroots movement to stand up
to the powerful insiders setting the terms of our national healthcare
debate.
Both the May 8 rally and the patient videos featured at
https://www.guaranteedhealthcare.org/ will reflect the view held by the
nurses of CNA/NNOC and patient activists that any healthcare reform
must guarantee that all patients receive a single standard of
high-quality healthcare for all.
Many of the reforms proposed in today’s healthcare debate will
have the opposite effect: mandating the purchase of private insurance,
as has been advocated by Governors Mitt Romney and Arnold
Schwarzenegger, among others, will only increase the percentage of care
dollars going to industry overhead, while subjecting patients to an
industry built on the denial of care. By contrast, a single-payer
reform, similar to Medicare for All, will allow patients to choose from
among private doctors and hospitals who are paid from a national,
non-profit fund. As has been proven in developed nations around the
world, this is the only way to guarantee healthcare for all. In
addition to SB 840, CNA/NNOC supports U.S. Rep. John Conyers’ similar
national bill H.R. 676.