MundiMuster! Montana and the Momentum for Single Payer

ThinkProgress:

Vermont Gov[enor] Peter Shumlin (D) made history earlier this year when he signed… legislation that would make his… the first state to lay the groundwork for a single payer health care system. In order to enact this system, the state needs a waiver from the federal health care law, which it will be able to obtain in 2017. Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) has introduced legislation to move the waiver date up to 2014, an idea President Obama has endorsed.

Now, another governor is looking to take advantage of flexibility in Obama’s health care law in order to establish a single payer system. Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D-MT) announced yesterday that he will be seeking a waiver to set up his own universal health care system in his state modeled after the single payer Canadian health care system[.]

I thought for a while that California would be next up after Vermont, but I am pleased to see Montana keeping up the momentum, especially after a brief flush of excitement over CA AB52 got nixed by some backroom strong-arming of a handful of still unnamed corporate Dems.

(Before this tragic but true observation mobilizes the usual bullshit equivalency thesis chorus in the Moot, I will just point out that Dems proposed AB52, that only Dems support it, that it is only because of disproportionate Dem majorities in California that AB52 has any chance at all, that Dems are indeed fighting even now to get AB52 back up in January, and that if you have enough sense to grasp what it would mean for the tenth largest economy in the world -- California's -- to introduce a public option and more stringent healthcare consumer protections and join with Vermont and Montana on the road to single payer then you damn well better support the Dems working on this issue rather than indulging in deranged and demoralizing holier-than-thou a-plague-on-both-their-houses performance art in front of a mirror expecting magical progressive outcomes somehow to eventuate from such bad behavior.)

Organizations you should get involved with if this is an issue that concerns you (and it does) include CaiforniaOneCare, Healthcare for All, California, and Single Payer Now

Democratic Senator Leno's Senate Bill 810 in support of single payer will be heard in Senate Appropriations in January 2012. Whatever the barriers Leno's Bill faces, it does not face at any rate the looming inevitability of the Governator's Chrome Veto Dildo anymore.

It is especially useful for organizations and businesses that support SB 810 to send endorsement letters as soon as possible in anticipation of this. A sample letter and recommendations as to useful recipients of such endorsements follows. If you use the sample letter as a guide it is crucial that the letter still be personalized as much as possible. Also, remember to place your letter on organizational letterhead (if it is from an organization). Be sure to cc: Senator Leno at (916) 445-4722 or email at sara.rogers@sen.ca.gov and also cc: Cindy Young @cyoung@calnurses.org. It is also a very good idea to mail or fax your endorsement letter to your own legislator. You can find out who that is if you don't remember, here http://192.234.213.69/lmapsearch/framepage.asp. It is also a good idea to fax letters of support to each Appropriations Committee member. They are:

Christine Kehoe, Chair, Senate Appropriations Committee, Fax: (916) 327-2188

Mimi Walters, Member, Appropriations Committee, Fax: (916) 445-9754

Elaine Alquist, Member, Appropriations Committee, Fax: (916) 324-0283

Kevin DeLeon, Member, Appropriations Committee, Fax: (916) 327-8817

Bill Emmerson, Member, Appropriations Committee, Fax: (916) 327-2187

Fran Pavely, Member, Appropriations Committee, Fax: (916) 324-4823

Curran Price, Member, Appropriations Committee, Fax: (916) 445-8899

Darrell Steinberg, Senate Pro Tempore, (916) 323-2263

Mark Wyland, Member, Appropriations Committee, (916) 446-7382.

SAMPLE ORGANIZATION SUPPORT LETTER
SB 810, the California Universal Health Care Act

Directions: Please use the following letter as a template for your own personalized support letter.

Date

The Honorable Christine Kehoe
Chair, Senate Appropriations Committee
State Capitol, Room 5050
Sacramento, CA 95814
Fax: (916) 327-2188

Re: SUPPORT FOR SB 810 (LENO) -– The California Universal Health Care Act of 2011

Dear Senator Kehoe:

I am writing to express my organization’s strong support for single payer, universal health care and for SB 810 (Leno), the California Universal Health Care Act. I urge your support for this important legislation and request that you work hard to bring it to the Governor’s desk.

Health insurance premiums are drowning California’s working families and businesses who struggle to pay unaffordable premiums that rise as much as 40% each year. As premiums increase, benefits are steadily decreasing -- leaving families unable to pay the cost of their care, even when they have insurance.

With national Republicans challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, a model they initially proposed, it is more important than ever for California to continue pushing forward on a Medicare for All single payer plan. Such a plan is the only universal health reform plan that is immune to constitutional challenge and it’s the only plan that Americans on both sides of the political spectrum are familiar with and strongly support.

SB 810 will dramatically reduce premiums for businesses and families, cover all medically necessary health care, eliminate the risk of medical bankruptcy, and is proven to contain health care spending over the long term. SB 810 will save California businesses and state and local government millions of dollars in employee health care costs and is the only plan that responsibly funds retiree health care.

Single Payer will help middle and lower income families and businesses that are the backbone of California’s economy. SB 810 will create jobs, ease the burden on California’s budget and improve health care for every single Californian. California families and employers can no longer afford to foolishly waste 30% of every health care dollar on a private health insurance bureaucracy designed to minimize the payment of claims instead of maximizing the health of the people.

SB 810 would dramatically increase patient choice and provider competition by guaranteeing every Californian total choice over his or her doctors and hospitals instead of the narrow provider networks that restrict choice today. I urge your support.

Sincerely,

Name
Organization

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