Guaranteed Healthcare

Debbie Cook – California’s 46^th District

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- California’s 46th congressional district stretches along the Pacific coast from Costa Mesa to the Palos Verdes Peninsula.  The district’s U.S. Congressional Democratic Congressional candidate is Debbie Cook, the second our “healthcare heroes” featured during this countdown to the November general election.

Debbie has been on the front lines for her community for many years but it was issues like the healthcare crisis, energy and what she terms a convergence of issues that compelled her to run for Congress. “How can we not do our best to tackle these things?” she asked.  As a candidate, Debbie hears her future constituents calling for sensible and meaningful action, and as a seasoned public servant she is ready to oblige.

Debbie was elected to the Huntington Beach City Council in 2000, and was reelected overwhelmingly in 2004. She currently serves as Huntington Beach’s Mayor. As mayor, Debbie is recognized for her common sense, her commitment to fiscal responsibility and her willingness to go across party lines to find bipartisan solutions for Huntington Beach. She continues her active support for clean beaches, safe drinking water, parks, open space and the extraordinary habitat of Huntington Beach wetlands.

But during her Congressional campaign, she hears over and over again from citizens struggling with healthcare costs that are too high or the lack of any health insurance coverage or even those who are forced into bankruptcy.  “I think other countries might look at us as a Third World country when it comes to what happens to so many Americans faced with healthcare expenses they cannot afford.” She went to say that huge insurance industry profits often come before getting patients the care they may need.

It’s no wonder Debbie hears about healthcare issue out on the campaign trail.  California ranks number one in the nation with the number of people uninsured well over 6.5 million and the number of citizens struggling with “underinsurance” rated nearly as high.  Efforts by State Senator Sheila Kuehl to pass SB840, state single payer legislation, have been thwarted by the governor’s pen, not a lack of political support from citizens and healthcare professionals who know just how bad things are for so many Californians.

“Healthcare decisions need to be made by patients and their doctors, not by insurance companies,” Debbie said when asked how much influence insurance companies should have on patient care.

“Healthcare professionals in growing numbers are supporting single payer health care where we use a system similar to Medicare to pay bills, and focus our efforts on improving the efficiency of care, especially treatment of chronic diseases.,” Debbie noted when she reflected on RNs fighting for single payer legislation in California and nationally.

Debbie knows that health care dollars need to be spent on care not administration. “Instead of giving 20 percent of our health care dollars to insurance companies, we need to spend 98% of our health care dollars on medical care. We also need to allow the government to negotiate prices for prescriptions so U.S. consumers don’t pay the highest prices in the world for medicine.”

Following what she terms a “make or break” election for the nation in November  and in the first few months the new Congress will convene in Washington, D.C., Debbie believes Congress will need to move forward in ways they have not in the past on issues like healthcare and energy policy.  “Congress spends 95 percent of its time on five percent of the issues,” she said, and she believes the time has passed for that sort of inaction as the stakes are too high and problems “too important” for further delay.

Debbie is an internationally respected leader in the energy field, educating the public and policy makers about the risks and vulnerabilities from the inevitable peaking of global oil production and the resultant challenges for local government and its citizens.

No doubt that Debbie’s opponent Rep. Dana Rohrabacher feels pretty comfortable in his Congressional seat after nine terms and with the support of lots of corporate influence.  But he’s never run against Debbie Cook before, and as anyone who has known this committed, intelligent and energized woman could tell you, winning campaigns on behalf of the good citizens of California is a lifelong reality.  The 46^th district is ready for the positive changes she will bring to Congress and the healthcare reform battle looming ahead.

You can make a difference in this race by visiting Cook’s  ActBlue page here: http://www.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/18872