Hundreds Converge at Public Hearing Yesterday in Los Angeles, Urge Legislators to Advance Single Payer Bill SB 562

Excerpts. Read complete press release here. 

Former Vermont Governor and Policy Analyst Agree: Single-Payer most comprehensive, effective solution

Members of California Nurses Association and the Healthy California campaign held a lively rally and filled the Ronald Reagan State Office Building Auditorium yesterday in downtown Los Angeles to urge legislators to move forward with SB 562, legislation for a single payer health plan that would guarantee comprehensive health care for all residents in the state.

The public hearing titled, “Universal Coverage and Cost Containment Efforts in the United States,” was the second convened by the Assembly Select Committee on Health Care Delivery Systems and Universal Coverage.

. . .

In the latter half of the hearing, panelist Larry Levitt, Co-Executive Director, Program for the Study of Health Reform and Private Insurance, Kaiser Family Foundation, noted that the US spends almost double per person on health care compared to other higher income countries and that the gap between the US and other countries is growing. This is not because in the US patients see their doctors more often, because they actually see them less Levitt explained. The main cause according to Levitt is because we have less regulatory control over costs than other countries.

To maximize costs and guarantee universal coverage, Levitt concluded, “The most far-reaching step would be to create a single payer system delivering health coverage through a state sponsored plan,” — a conclusion that probably horrified Speaker Rendon who is desperately searching for alternatives to single payer, nurses noted.

Panelist former Vermont Governor, Peter Shumlin, shared insights on his state’s efforts to move forward with a single payer health insurance plan during his tenure as governor.  “Any person working in the trenches knows that the toughest work is to change from the current system that is broken, will bankrupt us and is killing good citizens because you’re taking on the biggest special interests in our nation,” said Shumlin. “My goal is to insure that the work that we did, gets given to people like you who now have the power to actually get done, what we all should have and could have done, had things been a little different.”

. . .

“Hearing these presentations is like rearranging the chairs on the Titanic to talk about how we’re going to make the system a little bit better,” said Assemblymember Laura Friedman, a co-sponsor of SB562, in her closing comments. “What everyone’s looking for, and you see it in this room and we hear from our constituents all the time, is that they just want the certainty that they are going to be taken care of when they are sick. She continued, “The system that seems to give everyone that is single payer like they have in other countries.”

. . .

Bill supporters argue that with the push in Washington to further roll back existing health coverage, there is urgent need for California to act to protect the health and security of Californians, and that the state has a long history of considering state single payer plans.

For more information on SB 562 and the Campaign for a Healthy California visit: www.healthycaliforniaact.org