Kudos to Arcata City Council

by Diane Ryerson

I wish to recognize and thank Arcata City Council members for voting unanimously to authorize Mayor Ornelas to send a letter of support in concept for SB 562, The Healthy California Act, to the bill’s authors, senators Lara and Atkins (Sept. 20  City Council meeting).

Arcata joins other California cities (Arvin, Albany, Berkeley, El Cerrito, Emeryville, Los Angeles, Oakland, Richmond, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, West Hollywood – see healthycaliforniaact.org/supporters).

These cities, along with Marin, Santa Clara counties and Humboldt Democratic Central Committee, recognize the advantages of a universal single payer healthcare system as proposed in SB 562: 1) quality healthcare for all California residents; 2) expanded healthcare coverage, for example, dental, vision, hearing aids, mental health, nursing home and adult day healthcare; 3) cost savings.

With The Healthy California Act, SB 562, in operation, Arcata City Council members would not have had to create a 4.9 million dollar trust fund to cover healthcare for retired city employees not covered by Medicare.

The retired employees would receive expanded health coverage without premiums, copays and deductibles, and the city would save millions as well as staff time.

Single payer cost control mechanisms include: 1) reduced healthcare taxes – premiums, copays, deductibles are taxes paid by individuals and employers to unnecessary private, for-profit health insurance corporations; without the profit motive, taxes required for publicly controlled single payer healthcare are lower; 2) negotiation leverage (entire California population) for pricing healthcare procedures, drugs, and medical devices.

Thank you Arcata!

Diane Ryerson
Arcata