Nurses Applaud Advance of Guaranteed Health Bill - Public Support Grows for Single-Payer Reform, say RNs

A landmark bill to extend guaranteed healthcare to all Californians took an important step forward today as the Assembly Health Committee approved SB 840, which would establish a single-payer system similar to an improved and expanded Medicare for all.

“Momentum is growing for genuine, comprehensive reform, the kind that can only be achieved in California with SB 840,” said Deborah Burger, RN, president of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, the principle sponsor of the bill, which is authored by State Sen. Sheila Kuehl.

SB 840, which passed the State Senate last month, next goes to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

Burger noted the vote comes just after Michael Moore’s “SiCKO,” which highlights the nation’s growing healthcare crisis, set records for the second largest grossing documentary film of all time in its first weekend – “a clear indication of widespread public demand for meaningful action to end our national nightmare,” Burger said.

Sen. Kuehl also drew a parallel to the public response to “SiCKO” and noted, “single payer has emerged as the dinner table topic of choice now that so many of us are being hurt by insurance companies. This will really impact the health reform discussion taking place in the capitol… All other plans will be judged on whether they represent progress toward that goal or simply create a diversion.”

Burger and Kuehl also cited a recent Public Policy Institute of California poll that found that 66% of Californians would support a national health system even if it meant higher taxes. “Californians don’t want token or half-hearted steps. And that impetus will continue to grow,” said Burger.

Burger noted that on the opening weekend of “SiCKO” CNA/NNOC nurses greeted movie audiences at theaters in 46 U.S. cities, including many throughout California, and talked to tens of thousands of movie goers ready to press the case for a single-payer solution. “They don’t want proposals that just hand over more money to the insurance companies.”

In testimony to the committee, CNA Legislative Director Donna Gerber cited the companion testimony of a San Francisco nurse, Cynthia Campbell, who was insured for 30 years while she worked as an RN, but was dumped by her insurer after developing cancer. “The one time she needed it the most, the insurance industry found a loophole to deny her. The legislature didn’t regulate insurance in this instance and they can’t regulate them under any other proposal” before the legislature, Gerber said.

In her testimony, Campbell said, “I have been a nurse for over 30 years.  I paid taxes and insurance premiums faithfully.  Now I have a health problem, and there is nothing there for me.”

In another legislative vote, CNA/NNOC also welcomed approval by the Assembly Public Safety Committee for SB 275, a bill that would increase penalties for hospitals that dump patients. The bill is a response to the hospitals that have dropped patients who are unable to pay medical bills on the streets on skid row in downtown Los Angeles, a scandal now widely reported in the media and documented again in “SiCKO.”

The bill, authored by State Sen. Gil Cedillo, would increase fines against hospitals that engage in the practice from $100,000 on the first offense to up $500,000 on the third offense. It is bitterly opposed by the hospital industry.