Featuring Ellen Karel, the chair of Health Care for All-California, and host Brenda Gazzar, discussing the healthcare justice political ground game in one of the bluest states in the nation.
This is part two of a two-part series.
The Three-Front Battle for California Single Payer
—– TRANSCRIPT —–
Welcome to Code WACK!, your podcast on America’s broken healthcare system and how Medicare for All could help. I’m your host, Brenda Gazzar.
How is Health Care for All-California working to win a single-payer system in the state? Has the Medicare-for-All bill known as CalCare been derailed? To find out, we spoke to Ellen Karel, the chair of Health Care for All-California. She’s advocated for single-payer universal health care for 15 years and worked for a decade in San Francisco’s Latinx community.
Welcome to Code WACK! Ellen.
Q: So this is a really special moment for Medicare for all in California. Single-payer legislation was introduced recently in the state Assembly, and there was a campaign to get Governor Newsom to work with the Biden administration to free federal funds for a state plan. What do you see is Health Care for All’s role at this historic moment?
Karel: The stated mission of Health Care for All is to achieve universal single-payer health care in California. So, how does HCA fulfill its mission in today’s movement at this historic moment? I believe that we fulfill our mission by first recognizing what’s needed in the movement, by understanding our potential as a statewide chapter-based advocacy organization, and by using our network and strengthening our network in order to build a much broader base of public support for the movement — a broader, more diverse, more active base. Now that’s a tall order and it’s also what the movement needs. It is what we are suited to do because that is the kind of work we’re doing. It will take much more focus and direction and organization and that’s all good.
So today’s movement is getting larger all the time with more groups endorsing single payer and incorporating it into their mission and longtime activists in HCA chapters have and will continue to work with groups interested in promoting single payer by mentoring and sharing resources by co-sponsoring events and actions, combining visits to legislators, all the things we can do to amplify our collective voice.
You mentioned two specific initiatives we’ve undertaken in coordination with other groups. The HCA board has endorsed AB 1400, the Guaranteed Health Care for All Act or CalCare. It’s officially sponsored by the California Nurses Association, and HCA chapters are actively campaigning for the bill and we are regularly updating and encouraging supporters to get involved.
Q: Got it. What else is Healthcare for All-California doing to win single payer?
We also have circulated a petition and supported the strategy of the Healthy California Now Coalition in calling on Gov. (Gavin) Newsom to connect with the Biden Administration now and to work with federal regulators — most notably, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, who was a former California Attorney General and a single-payer supporter when he was in Congress, to connect with the federal officials so that we can start already laying the groundwork to get the necessary approval and funding for our single-payer system. Now, HCA chapter leaders are also doing something else. We’re lobbying members of Congress to co-sponsor the bill by Ro Khanna of Silicon Valley, which could easily streamline the process for the state to set up and fund a single-payer system.
Q: So what do you see as HCA’s role in the future?
Karel: What I foresee for HCA in the future is to be a leader in developing a model for community-based outreach that will not just talk at people or hand out information, and do the kinds of things that have been valuable in the past in getting the attention of the public, but we will do a more personal kind of outreach that will engage, solidify and activate the support that already exists, that we know does exist, but is lying dormant, and we will engage leaders in all areas of our communities where we have chapters, and by developing this model for doing this, we can use it to start chapters in other more critical legislative districts, and we can make it available to other groups that can use it to expand base building. So, what we want to undertake is what we call real constituency building for single-payer up and down the state and the kind, the depth, the breadth of public support the governor and legislators cannot ignore, as they are now.
Q: Assemblyman Ash Kalra has withdrawn the single payer bill in California, known as CalCare. Why do you think he did that?
Karel: Brenda, who knows what’s really going on. He put out a statement, and in his statement, he did say that he had been hearing from colleagues that without addressing the financing issue that they would not support it and that the bill would die in committee. This was in his statement so that is what he’s saying publicly.
Q: Do you see this as a setback for the movement?
Karel: I don’t. I thought it was unrealistic to treat a single-payer bill as a one-year bill and so I think having that extra time gives us more time to organize, to support the bill. In fact, the financing, you know, has been pretty much worked out. Not only do we have dozens of studies that support financing for single payer, we have a 2017 study that was done for the last single-payer bill that really analyzed what the situation was in terms of who is getting health care and how much it would cost and how much we would save, and while these figures need to be updated, and we need to come come up with some specific plan for raising the amount of money to make up for the money that’s going to private plans now, that study is valid. And so a lot of the work has been done, I think, we are absolutely …this is a political situation. We have to say not a policy situation. The answers are there. I don’t know if the politics are there. And again that comes back to people power. You know Sara Nelson from the United Airlines union says that they’ve got the money. We’ve got the people, and so this will give us more time to organize.
Q: A growing number of Californians support a more fair and affordable health care system as you noted. Some have been working on this issue since the 1990s. What is essential in your opinion if California is ever to succeed in winning single-payer health care?
Karel: That’s a great question, Brenda. And I’ll tell you. I don’t know the answer, I don’t know that anybody does. I think we know what the ingredients are, the elements are. We need leadership. We absolutely need leadership. So you need political leaders in the governor’s office and in the key committees where you know that a bill would have to go through, um, that’s a little shaky right now. And who elects these leaders? It’s the people so it comes back to electing public officials who are going to do the right thing.
That’s kind of a long-term answer. Short term, you know it’s a question of getting the power to influence the governor and the legislators who are there and doing it in effective ways. So, that needs to happen. So it’s both. It’s influencing the decision makers and it’s getting the people on board
Thank you, Ellen Karel.
Find more Code WACK! episodes on ProgressiveVoices.com and on the PV App. You can also subscribe to Code WACK! wherever you find your podcasts. This podcast is powered by HEAL California, uplifting the voices of those fighting for health care reform around the country. I’m Brenda Gazzar.
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