Guaranteed Healthcare

In a season of wild stories, here’s the next one: Governor Arnold is facing a recall, just as his state is falling apart and some crucial healthcare bills are waiting to be signed.  This new threat to his term opens a window of opportunity to push some of those bills through.

He's got no one to blame but himself.  There’s a ridiculous case of budget gridlock hitting California right now…the budget is historically late, key bills are stalled, the most vulnerable among us are threatened, and there is not a single Republican willing to support the budget proposed by either Republican Governor Schwarzenegger or the legislative Dems. 

Into this tinderbox, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) has just thrown a match.  They’ve started the process to recall Arnold Schwarzenegger, an accidental governor who assumed office when his processor was recalled.

The big news in the movement for single-payer healthcare is that they’re busy putting lipstick on the pig…by which I mean that the California legislature, in the aftermath of Arnold's failed plan, is looking on improving the health insurance corporations’ behavior and products.   Let’s turn to our healthcare hero: 

"In the aggregate, it could be pretty significant," said Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica), chairwoman of the Senate Health Committee, of the legislation. "I think it's just getting to the point where the opposition has just overreached so badly and the insurance companies' actions have been so egregious that both sides of the aisle are getting fed up with them."

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The UAW’s strike against GM is not just about their members' healthcare…but also about the healthcare of millions of people not represented by a powerful union.  We’ll look at the potential impact of this historic strike and what it means for workers and the nation that is healthcare increasingly becoming the central issue for labor, both in bargaining and activism…

The final days of California’s legislative season are here and there is at least one issue of national important left to be decided: will insurance companies get their dream bill handed to them by an unholy alliance of sell-out Democrats and Governor Schwarzenegger? 

The Schwarzenegger-Nunez bill distorts healthcare reform by forcing more Californians into the arms of the insurance companies, thereby increasing their revenue, power, and ability to meddle in medical decisions.  The California Nurses Association, other unions, and the state’s healthcare reformers, are turning up the fight to block this harmful bill with op-eds and a new advertising campaign, coming on top of mail pieces we’re already sending into the state.  The insurance advocates are worried and sending out their attack dogs, but new polls suggest they have an uphill battle.

Speaker Fabian Nunez went to the LA Times editorial board last week to tell them about the big plans he and Arnold Schwarzenegger are dreaming up: to take their hasty, half-cooked, gift-to-the-insurance-industry-masquerading-as-a-healthcare-reform-plan straight to the voters as a ballot initiative next year.

Not so fast.  A new poll release today by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee finds considerable unease among the California public over the Schwarzenegger-Nunez plan.  It would likely start out under 50% in the polls, and face an uphill struggle that would only get harder as voters learn about the opposition from the state’s nurses and healthcare activists.

This is a high-stakes issue not just for patients in California, but also for the future direction of the movement for healthcare reform around the country.  Fortunately, voters have smelled the rat.…

A new Field poll today in California shows voters choosing a single-payer healthcare plan over the insurance-driven proposals supported by Governor Arnold and his Democratic allies.

The finding is in line with past research finding voters way ahead of politicians on the issue of guaranteed healthcare.  The timing on this poll, however, could not have been better for healthcare advocates, as the California budget just got passed and Governor Arnold, his Democratic helpers, and their insurance buddies are about to try to shove a regressive healthcare measure through the legislature.  Their plan just got harder.