[lizzyj]

HUGE: Fake CA Health Reform is DEAD

More than SCHIP, the important action in the movement for guaranteed healthcare is happening in California, where the insurance industry almost pulled off the big scam, getting Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Speaker Fabian Nunez to cooperate on a plan forcing the sale of more expensive, unworkable insurance products—and blocking the guaranteed, single-payer reform this country needs.

[/b]cross-posted at the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association’s Breakroom Blog, as we organize to make 2007 the Year of GUARANTEED healthcare on the single-payer model.[/size][/b]

The quick background for those of you who missed it...insurance corporations have set the terms of the debate this year in California, with Schwarzenegger proposing that all individuals be forced to purchase private insurance products, and Nunez and certain corporate Dems countering that all employers be forced to purchase them on behalf of their workforce. Both plans would give more customers, revenue, and medical influence to the very insurance corporations who have ruined our healthcare system...while doing nothing to actually solve our healthcare crisis.

Everything has changed as a broad coalition of mainstream Dems has realized that Arnold’s plan is unaffordable for the average patient. Of course it is! Private insurers waste one-third of care dollars on overhead and profits. You simply cannot do that and provide people with the care they need. Of course, any plan built on private insurance corporations is unworkable.

But what really kills the deal is the fact that Speaker Nunez’ wife has just gone on the payroll of the hospital industry, having been hired by a lobbying group funded by the California Hospital Association.
It is quite possible that he will be legally required to recuse himself on all healthcare bills...including the one he is trying to push through with Schwarzenegger. Even if not, the symbolism of doubling his family income through HMO money leaves him with no credibility on the issue.

Or as Zenei Cortez, RN, put it: "Californians can no longer trust that he will represent the public interest and not the financial interest of a large industry that has put his wife on their payroll." Of course you gotta feel for the Nunez family...it’s not easy to fund global luxury travel anymore!

To join the fight for guaranteed healthcare (with a "Medicare for All" or SinglePayer financing), visit GuaranteedHealthcare.org, a project of the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association.

[CRNA2007]

The problem with single payer plans is the ones demanding this are the ones who want everyone else to pay for it. I like my private coverage and want nothing to do with government run health care. I also don;t want to foot the bill for someone elses health care. I worked hard to get where I am and so can those that want everyone else to pay for there health care.

Originally Posted by lizzyj

HUGE: Fake CA Health Reform is DEAD

More than SCHIP, the important action in the movement for guaranteed healthcare is happening in California, where the insurance industry almost pulled off the big scam, getting Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Speaker Fabian Nunez to cooperate on a plan forcing the sale of more expensive, unworkable insurance products—and blocking the guaranteed, single-payer reform this country needs.

[/b]cross-posted at the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association’s Breakroom Blog, as we organize to make 2007 the Year of GUARANTEED healthcare on the single-payer model.[/size][/b]

The quick background for those of you who missed it...insurance corporations have set the terms of the debate this year in California, with Schwarzenegger proposing that all individuals be forced to purchase private insurance products, and Nunez and certain corporate Dems countering that all employers be forced to purchase them on behalf of their workforce. Both plans would give more customers, revenue, and medical influence to the very insurance corporations who have ruined our healthcare system...while doing nothing to actually solve our healthcare crisis.

Everything has changed as a broad coalition of mainstream Dems has realized that Arnold’s plan is unaffordable for the average patient. Of course it is! Private insurers waste one-third of care dollars on overhead and profits. You simply cannot do that and provide people with the care they need. Of course, any plan built on private insurance corporations is unworkable.

But what really kills the deal is the fact that Speaker Nunez’ wife has just gone on the payroll of the hospital industry, having been hired by a lobbying group funded by the California Hospital Association.
It is quite possible that he will be legally required to recuse himself on all healthcare bills...including the one he is trying to push through with Schwarzenegger. Even if not, the symbolism of doubling his family income through HMO money leaves him with no credibility on the issue.

Or as Zenei Cortez, RN, put it: "Californians can no longer trust that he will represent the public interest and not the financial interest of a large industry that has put his wife on their payroll." Of course you gotta feel for the Nunez family...it’s not easy to fund global luxury travel anymore!

To join the fight for guaranteed healthcare (with a "Medicare for All" or SinglePayer financing), visit GuaranteedHealthcare.org, a project of the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association.

[HM2Viking]

Insurance by definitiion is a social contract designed to spread the risk of catastrophic illness or injury that falls beyond the capacity of an individual or their family to bear as individuals. In other words we are all paying for each others health care.

30% of your private health insurance dollars go nowhere near patient care. That is a true obscenity. Cutting our administrative costs down to 10-15% would truly provide for the worlds best health care for all Americans.

[lizzyj]

The kind of single payer system being put forward in bills SB 840 in California nad HR 676 are a unique American style nati0nal health insurance that allows you to pick your provider and that doesn't dismantle the current privatre hospitals. The diffrence is that everyone is covered which expands the risk pool.
You may have decent insurance now, but employer based healthcare coverage is becoming more and more unaffordable with more and more out of pocket costs and less coverage. The percentage of employers who provide healthinsurace is decreasing dramatically every year.

[pickledpepperRN]

From http://www.guaranteedhealthcare.org/ :

My Story:

Lost my job of 12 years due to outsourcing because of high cost of employer provided health insurance, than offered the same job with the contract company for less money and no benefits.

Now that I am older it is very difficult to find work. The only job I could get that offers health insurance is a lousy low paying job. This new job works everyone 48 hours a week to cut manpower thus cut cost of health insurance. I am stuck working too many hours in a lousy job that I hate just so I can have health insurance. I am lucky my home is paid off, and if not for health insurance I could semi-retire: working only part time. But, I have to work full time because I cannot afford and probably would be denied health insurance otherwise.

I know I cannot be the only one in this situation. Everyone should have health care provided just as fire protection and police protection is provided. No one should have to live in fear of losing everything if they become sick.
Richard Settle Modesto, CA

http://www.guaranteedhealthcare.org/your_story/mr-16

[lizzyj]

Thank-you space nurse for posting one of sadly many many examples of the impending death of employer-based healthcare insurance