Guaranteed Healthcare

In this essay, CNA/NNOC Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro spotlights a way that California can jumpstart the single-payer movement for the entire country: California legislators, the majority of whom have already voted in support of establishing single-payer for the state, should organize the two-thirds vote needed to override Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's likely veto of similar legislation this year.

As the 2008 California legislative session heats up and the presidential contests get into full swing, we find ourselves at a pivotal moment to make healthcare history. The time has never been better to win a universal, single-payer healthcare system both nationally and in California.

California legislators earlier this year rejected Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s market-based reforms, which would have simply forced Californians to buy more insurance policies that many are finding aren’t worth the paper they are printed on. Just ask the mother of Nataline Sarkisyan, the 17-year-old who died after Cigna refused her a liver transplant. Or the family of Nick Colombo, another teen who got insurance approval for his cancer treatment only after his brother and CNA/NNOC staged a huge protest of PacifiCare.

Nationally, worries about healthcare costs and access consistently rank among the public’s top domestic issues in this year’s presidential race, along with the recession which for so many is directly related to the healthcare crisis.

What both the presidential campaign and the debate in California over the past year have emphatically demonstrated is that the patience of the American people has run out on the healthcare crisis – a point clearly evident in the polls. Surveys show that 60 percent of Californians and a majority of Americans support a government-run program that guarantees access to healthcare for everyone.

And frustration is focused on aspects of the crisis across the board: cost, access, and quality. Contrary to John McCain’s view, it is not just cost – as evidenced by the overwhelming response to our CheneyCare campaign, the amazing support for our fight for Nataline and Nick, and the thousands of pleas we’ve received from other Americans asking for our help.

Their message is loud and clear: we need a single-payer system. As many of you know, under a single-payer system, everyone – individuals, employers, and the government – contributes to a fund that is used to directly compensate private providers for healthcare services. Insurance companies, who now act as middlemen between providers and patients but skim up to a third of every healthcare dollar on expenses such as administration, advertising, and exorbitant CEO salaries, would be obsolete. The government would have the power to negotiate fair prices with providers and drug companies. And, most importantly, every resident would be automatically covered and receive a single, high quality standard of care. Nobody would be left out because the risks would be spread out among the country’s entire population.

The campaign to win single-payer in California is not new. With CNA/NNOC as main sponsor and member RNs taking the time to write, call, visit lawmakers, or attend a rally, SB 840, a state bill authored by Sen. Sheila Kuehl that would establish such a system, has already twice won passage, in 2006 and 2007, from both branches of the California Legislature. But Schwarzenegger, who not only depends on the health insurance industry for campaign donations but personally believes that you deserve only the healthcare that you can afford, vetoed it despite thousands of letters from ordinary Californians and nurses asking him to stand up to the insurance corporations.

This year, we can build California’s patient revolt by not only passing SB 840 again, but by organizing to win the two-thirds legislative vote we need to override Schwarzenegger’s likely veto.

It is surprising that our hospitals are so far behind our nurses in seeing the benefits of a single-payer system. They would no longer have to haggle with insurers for payment, worry about closures, and instead be able to provide quality care for those with the most need, not just those with the ability to pay.

A thorough financial analysis of the legislation also shows that it would save working Californian families between $500 and $3,000 per year, and that it would lower the employee healthcare costs of California businesses by 16 percent.
 
Sen. Kuehl, to her tremendous credit, has persevered each year despite these vetoes. “Frankly, the governor is irrelevant,” said Kuehl at a rally last year. Kuehl, who also sponsored our first-in-the-nation safe staffing ratios legislation, firmly believes that the will of the people will be carried out if we flex our political muscle. And as nurses on the frontlines of healthcare, we should and can lead the charge.
 
There is no time to waste. This year’s version of SB 840 is alive and kicking, currently in the assembly appropriations committee and expected to once again hit Schwarzenegger’s desk later this fall. Our focus over the next few months will be to lobby California’s legislators to pass SB 840 and encourage them to muster up the political courage to initiate a gubernatorial override if needed. We must also unite with our community and labor allies in this fight, particularly the groups Health Care for All-California and the California School Employees Association. Both organizations have steadfastly supported single-payer and refused to buy into the idea of reforming insurance companies. A win in California would also bolster HR 676, the federal bill now pending that would enact single-payer for the nation.
 
Now is the time for all of us to take action. Tell your representatives in no uncertain terms that you want them to not only pass SB 840, but override the governor’s veto. Enlist your family, friends, neighbors, church, parents’ association, and kids’ soccer league to help. Contact us if you’d like to participate in legislative visits or on a deeper level. Let’s not repeat the mistakes of the past and fritter away this extraordinary moment of opportunity to jumpstart the movement to guarantee health for ourselves and future generations.