CALIF: EMERGENCY PHONE CALLS NEEDED BY YOU RT NOW re SB 810

Emergency SB 810 Alert Your Action is Required Tell Senators Rubio & Hernandez to stop playing politics with our lives Dear Healthcare Activist, We need you to contact 3 State Senators today to urge support for SB 810, the California Universal Healthcare Act. The Senate Health Committee was scheduled to discuss SB 810 on Wednesday, April 27 at 1:30pm. The Health Committee meeting has now been postponed to Wednesday, May 4th at 1:30pm. The vote on SB 810 is in jeopardy of not passing because of two members of the Health Committee, Democratic State Senators Michael Rubio from Bakersfield, who is not in support, and the Chair of the Health Committee, Ed Hernandez, who is not sure what he thinks. Please call Senator Rubio and ask him what it would take for him to vote yes. Call his office every day through May 4th until he responds to your simple question. His Sacramento phone is 916-651-4016 and his fax is 916-327-5989. His Bakersfield phone is 661-395-2620 and his fax is 661-395-2620. Please call Senator Hernandez, the chair of the Health Committee, ask him what it would take for him to vote yes. Call him every day through May 4th until he answers your question. He is clearly placing politics above people's lives. He voted for SB 810 last year when he was an Assembly Member! His Sacramento phone is 916-651-4024 and his fax is 916-445-0485. His West Covina phone is 626-430-2499 and his fax is 626-430-2494. When calling Rubio and Hernandez, they may ask you if you live in the district. Do not get thrown off by the question. The fact is they are going to vote on your healthcare and you deserve an answer why they will not vote for legislation that provides healthcare for everyone, saves Californians billions of dollars, allows you choice of provider, and stops the insurance companies from controlling your health care. You deserve an answer. Single Payer healthcare is also in the Democratic Party platform. One would think they would want to be loyal Democrats. They may raise the idea that national legislation was passed. California's legislation is so much better than the national. Pasted below is a comparison of SB 810 to the national legislation. Please also call your state senator and assembly member. You can determine your legislators by clicking here. Ask them to support SB 810, the California Universal Healthcare Act. If they do not support SB 810, ask them what it would take for them to support the bill. If they do support SB 810, ask them to contact Rubio and Hernandez to support SB 810. Now is not the time to be shy or particularly polite. Do not swear, but not giving answers to why or how they are going to vote on your healthcare is morally outrageous. Keep calling every day until they defend their positions, or in Hernandez's case, has one. We would appreciate you updating us every day on your calls. We want to track our mobilization. We say SB 810 is popular. We need to prove that now to these legislators. What else can you do? 1. Ask 3 or more friends to call. 2. Help us call our activists to make calls. We will send you a list of names and a suggested script. 3. Forward this alert. 4. If in the San Francisco bay area, attend our Sat. April 23 meeting on defending against the attack on Medicare. We will also update everyone on threat to SB 810. The 3pm meeting is at 255 9th St in SF. That is 2 blocks south of the Civic Center BART/MUNI stop. 5. Lastly, please consider making a financial contribution. To make a financial contribution, click here. Or you can send a financial contribution to Single Payer Now PO Box 460622 San Francisco, CA 04146 Let's get busy. Thank you, Don Bechler Chair - Single Payer Now 415-695-7891 www.singlepayernow.net The 2010 federal health care reform will help many people pay for health insurance and rein in some of the worse abuses of health insurance companies. But it leaves wasteful, profit-driven insurance corporations in charge of our health care. We need the California Universal Health Care Act (SB 810)! California Needs a New Health Care System That Provides the Same Comprehensive Care for Everyone and Eliminates Insurance Companies We need a health care system that includes everybody. SB 810 includes everyone in the state, regardless of age, health, employment, economic, or immigration status. The federal health care reform (Affordable Care Act) requires everyone to buy health insurance starting in 2014. But it excludes undocumented immigrants and exempts people who can't afford insurance or who pay a fine. An estimated 8% of the population still won't have insurance - going without needed care, relying on emergency rooms, etc. We need a plan that covers all of our medically necessary care. SB 810 provides the same comprehensive coverage to everyone, rich or poor, old or young - all medically necessary care including doctor and hospital costs, prescription drugs, dental, vision, and mental health care, medical equipment, physical therapy, acupuncture, and more. The federal ACA lists benefits that insurance companies have to cover. But it doesn't include adult dental and vision care or "alternative" treatments like acupuncture. And insurance companies' priority is profits, so they have a stake in denying claims. You will still have to fight with them over claims they deny. We need a system that controls costs for individuals and families. SB 810 charges an affordable premium to employees and employers, on a sliding scale based on earnings. It eliminates copays and deductibles, as well as the insurance companies' wasteful bureaucracy, staff to deny your claims, sky-high CEO salaries, and profits. The federal ACA does not control increases in insurance premiums (which doubled in the last 10 years). Your out-of-pocket costs (deductibles and copays) will go up as health care costs go up, despite some controls. As premiums rise, many employers will charge employees more for insurance. We need a system that controls the cost to taxpayers. SB 810 pays for itself with fair, affordable premiums paid by employers and employees, combined with federal Medicare and Medicaid funds. It doesn't waste money on private insurance. It can hold down the cost of drugs, equipment, and services through the bulk buying power of a single payer. It will improve efficiency by planning investments in machines, clinics, etc. The federal ACA puts no controls on the prices of drugs, medical equipment, or services. So insurance premiums will continue to soar. That means more and more of our tax dollars will go to subsidizing insurance premiums. We need a system that controls costs to employers - including our struggling state and local governments. SB 810, by controlling costs, keeps premiums affordable for employers, including state and local governments, now burdened with high and rising health insurance costs. Because the federal ACA puts no controls on costs to employers, soaring employee health care costs will continue to undermine efforts to balance state and local budgets. We need a system that controls costs for the whole society. SB 810, by eliminating insurance company waste, bargaining to hold down costs, and planning for greater efficiency, breaks the upward spiral of health care costs that threatens our whole economy. Although it outlaws some abuses and may reduce some costs, the federal ACA leaves our dysfunctional, wasteful corporate-insurance system in place. The U.S. now pays twice what other industrial countries pay for health care per person. Health care is now 17% of our economy, headed for 20% by 2019. We need a system that lets us choose our doctors. SB 810 creates one fund for the whole state, so the fund will pay the fee of any doctor or licensed health care provider in the state. That means you can choose any doctor who's available. Under the federal ACA, you have to buy insurance from a private company, so you can only go to the doctors it covers. If you change jobs or lose your job, you may end up with different insurance and have to change doctors. We need a simple system with less -- not more -- red tape. SB 810 creates one plan, eliminating thousands of private plans, each with their own procedures and lists of covered services. With one plan, doctors and hospitals can cut their administrative costs — now a big factor in U.S. health care costs. The federal ACA creates a new layer of bureaucracy – the insurance "exchanges" - and dozens of regulations about which families and employers can get what kind of financial help to pay for insurance. All that on top of insurance company waste! We need to take control of our health care away from insurance companies! Insurance companies are in business to make profits for their shareholders. They make more profits by paying out less money for your health care. That's why they've been rejecting people with "preexisting conditions," canceling policies of people who needexpensive care, and denying claims. The new federal ACA tries to limit these abuses, but it has gaps and loopholes that insurance companies will exploit. SB 810 eliminates the middleman and returns decisions about your care to you and your doctor. The federal ACA leaves insurance companies with the power to make decisions about your health care. Information about how you can help bring comprehensive, affordable health care to all Californians: californiaonecare.org - singlepayernow.net - healthcareforall.org - wellstoneclub.org Health Care Committee, Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club, www.wellstoneclub.org

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