Health Care Committee
The Health Care Committee has been working to support passage and adoption of a single payer health care bill in California. Committee members have been going out into the community to speak on what single payer is, why we need it, and how we can work to pass it.
1. Join us on the third Monday of each month, 7-9pm in Oakland for Health Care Committee meetings. For more information, contact Nancy Friedman, healthcare@wellstoneclub.org
2. Help make phone calls to legislators and constituents in key areas to move the agenda on health care reform by contacting the above email address.
SAMPLE SUPPORT LETTER
SB 810, the California Universal Health Care Act
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INSTRUCTIONS: Please use the following letter as a template for your own personalized support letter.
1) Place your letter on organizational letterhead (if it's from an organization).
2) Email, fax or mail the letter to Assembly Appropriations Committee.
3) Fax or mail to John Perez, Speaker of the Assembly.
- Fax: (916) 319-2139
Mail: The Honorable Felipe Fuentes, State Capitol, Sacramento, CA 95814.
4) Be sure to cc: Senator Mark Leno, author of SB 810.
- Email: senator.leno@sen.ca.gov.
Fax: (916) 319-2146
Mail: The Honorable Mark Leno, State Capitol, Room 4061, Sacramento, CA 95814.
Please also mail or fax your letter to your own Assemblymember. (To find his or her capitol room number or fax number, enter your zip code at http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html). |
DATE:______
The Honorable Felipe Fuentes
Chair, Assembly Appropriations Committee
State Capitol, Room 6005
Sacramento, CA 95814
Dear Assemblymember Fuentes:
I am writing to express my organization's strong support for single payer, universal health care and for SB 810, the California Universal Health Care Act. I urge your support for this important legislation and request that you work hard to bring it to the Governor's desk this year.
Passage of federal health reform has greatly increased the importance of California's advocacy for universal health care. Federal health reform is the tipping point for health reform, not the end goal. Single payer remains the gold standard for health care reform and is the only model that will achieve truly universal coverage. SB 810 will dramatically reduce premiums for businesses and families, will cover all medically necessary health care, will eliminate the risk of medical bankruptcy, and is proven to contain health care spending over the long term. Importantly, SB 810 will save California businesses and state and local government millions of dollars in employee health care costs and is the only plan that responsibly funds retiree health care.
Around the world, every wealthy nation except the United States achieves universal health care through some variation of a single payer model of health care. All other nations spend far less than we do and in return receive higher quality care and more of it. California families and employers can no longer afford to foolishly waste 30% of every health care dollar on a private health insurance bureaucracy designed to minimize the payment of claims instead of maximizing the health of the people.
SB 810 would dramatically increase patient choice and provider competition by guaranteeing every Californian total choice over his or her doctors and hospitals instead of the narrow provider networks that restrict choice today. SB 810 would significantly lower health premiums for businesses and families that are struggling to pay unaffordable premiums that rise as much as 40% every year. This legislation will help middle and lower income families and businesses that are the backbone of California's economy. SB 810 will create jobs, ease the burden on California's budget and improve health care for every single Californian. I urge your support.
Sincerely,
Your Name
Your Organization
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Why do people cling to terrible health insurance? Why do arguments about the cost-benefits of single payer/Medicare for All bounce off so many listeners? How have the conservatives seized and held the high ground on health care? On March 27, 2010 the WDRC health committee and Single Payer Now in San Francisco co-sponsored a training by Cognitive Policy Works on practical, effective ways to use framing to promote single payer health care. Trainers Joe Brewer and Eric Haas, both of whom worked with George Lakoff at the Rockridge Institute, led us through mind-bending exercises to demonstrate people's innate risk aversion and feelings about fairness, how frames trump facts, and how we can reclaim the moral high ground for single payer. Health committee member Jean Tepperman attended the training and wrote this useful summary.
Click here for a copy of the Report.
Please join us and make
affordable, quality health care for all a reality! |
