The crowd was there to show support for SB 840

pickledpepperRN · May 19, 2007

Check out this exciting rally for healthcare sponsored by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, with broad participation by the California School Employees Association and a wide variety of labor, religious, and community groups.

2,000 nurses, school employees, community activists, and patients rallied at the California state Capitol on Tuesday, May 8th for genuine healthcare reform, and to demand Arnold Schwarzenegger end the state's healthcare crisis by signing SB 840.

Sen. Sheila Kuehl's bill, SB 840 would guarantee healthcare for all Californians with a single-payer model similar to Medicare for All.

HM2VikingRN, RN · May 19, 2007

COOL!

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So what makes you think there's a problem with our health care system?
MICHAEL MOORE: [laughs hard] I said to the crew on the first day, ''Let's not insult the audience by telling them that the health care system is broken. Let's start with the assumption that people know it. What kind of film would we make then?''

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mikeinthenews/index.php?id=9811

I look forward to seeing Michael Moore's take on the health system.

pickledpepperRN · May 20, 2007

'Sicko' Shows Michael Moore's Maturity as a FilmmakerSunday, May 20, 2007

By Roger Friedman

FOX NEWS

Filmmaker Michael Moore's brilliant and uplifting new documentary, "Sicko," deals with the failings of the U.S. healthcare system, both real and perceived. But this time around, the controversial documentarian seems to be letting the subject matter do the talking, and in the process shows a new maturity....

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,273875,00.html

Simplepleasures · May 22, 2007

Even conservative Fox news sems to think there is merit to MM's new documenary, SICKO.Maybe now we can get past the persona of MM and actually listen to the message of the movie.

pickledpepperRN · Jun 7, 2007

June 6, 2007.

Kuehl Single Payer Health Bill Passes California State Senate

In the last hour the California State Senate passed SB 840, the single payer universal coverage health care bill by Senator Sheila Kuehl. …

http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2007/06/kuehl_single_pa.html

mdfog10 · Jun 14, 2007

In George Bush's America no one cares if you are poor or debilitated. As a college student with no health insurance, I went to my eye doctor. He told me I had to go to a specialist immediately as I had scratched my cornea. I saw my file get branded with a "NO INSURANCE" sticker. Like I had a communicable disease. The days of working hard and pulling yourself (and your family) up by the "bootstraps" are over. Many citizens in our country consider themselves religious. Well I remember learning very early on that we are judged by how we treat the least of us. Don't think some remember that lesson. We need SB 840 and HR 676

DarrenWright · Jun 14, 2007

This country does not belong to GWB.

Your accusation is unfair.

As a college student with no insurance, I went to the orthodontist with four impacted wisdom teeth. He accepted a 10-month payment plan. I didn't expect anyone to pay for my haircuts, gas, or meal plan, so I didn't expect anyone to pay for my teeth. BTW, I was uninsured, but I chose to be uninsured.

The days of working hard and pulling yourself up by the bootstraps are not over; they will never be over, and people will be able to do so as long as they have the constitution to commit to it. There is a population, however, that would like to take away any motivation for people to pull themselves up by their bootstraps by giving them handouts instead of motivating them to succeed.

Are you suggesting that the religious people of this country are in-large failing to care for "the least of us" (which you were not as a college student)? Not fair, or reasonable. Religious organizations are by far the most charitable agencies in this country, and Americans are incredibly charitable. And it would seem a violation of sensibilities to suggest legislation based on religious principles in one bill, but to fight fervently to eliminate religion from gov't in several other bills.

RN4MERCY · Jun 15, 2007

The days of working hard and pulling yourself up by the bootstraps are not over; they will never be over, and people will be able to do so as long as they have the constitution to commit to it. There is a population, however, that would like to take away any motivation for people to..."
:monkeydance:
O.K., let's go there. What about the thousands of qualified applicants who are turned away from nursing schools every year? The number of nurses the pundits say we'll need by 2010 is surpassed by the number of qualified (have all the prerequisites) pre-professional students who are turned away due to lack of classroom space and instructors. What kind of "constitution" does it take to subsist on minimum wages for years, while you stand in line to step into those "boots?" How do you pay back the loans while working at a minimum wage job, pay for housing and transportation and food; not to mention the fact that 60% of working people don't have insurance and can't afford it, or the co-pays and deductibles if it is offered. What kind of "constitution" is required to make that choice, which, considering Maslow's Heirarchy of needs, isn't a choice at all? As a nurse you should know the answer to that!
So then we cut the "bootstraps" off by taking away the motivation. Students who might have considered nursing as a career give up because why go to school for two or three years taking chemistry, biology, microbiology, nutrition, psychology and pharmacology when you know there's another two to three year wait for another two to three year curriculum that will prepare you to be a nurse? Surely, such students have demonstrated the commitment you speak of; the point being that this government has ceased to be accountable and responsive to the electorate. People don't believe their vote counts as reflected by the low turnout at the polls. Broken promises, broken dreams, abandoned responsibility for ensuring that the opportunity is there to provide for the common good.
Back to health care. Students are usually "covered" for health care through student health services by fees paid during enrollment. So, what then, when they leave school because the boots and the bootstraps are gone? Health is the asset every one needs to go to work, go to school, and provide for her/himself and others who are dependent on them. It's not every man/woman for him/herself in this country. We're all in the same boat. Hooray, you got your teeth fixed and "chose" not to have insurance. Pride goeth before the fall!
Here's a story about an 18 year old in peds ICU in a coma; been there for a couple weeks, post wisdom tooth extraction. It festered for a week post extraction. He was turned out of an ER with an RX for pain and p.o. antibiotics, lethargic and unable to walk with a steady gate. Instructions to come back, if it "got worse." He did, 911 in an ambulance the next day, s/p seizures and respiratory arrest. Intracranial abcess and hemorrhage. His family will be bankrupted by the bills. Personal responsibility, sure, but we have an egalitarian responsibility to insure that the tragedy of illness and injury isn't compounded by financial ruin? Very sad...why wasn't he admitted and given a C/T, MRI, IV hydration and IV antibiotics? Maybe the insurance company has gotten away with this before and saved some money; being the greedy creatures that they are, perhaps they thought they'd roll the dice with another person's life hanging in the balance so they could give their case manager a fatter bonus at the end of the year. Maybe his organs will help someone else...through hard work, opportunity and bootstraps? NOT.
Your rap about pulling your self up by the bootstraps is offensive...you can't pull yourself up by the bootstraps to get clean water or breathe clean air, or eat uncontaminated food. Those things are essential to good health. We collectively expect our government to provide those without discrimination. We don't stop there when you consider fire, police, libraries, schools, and Medicare are not run for-profit in the commercial sense, only the social sense. Socialized, yes; public goods, yes; for the public benefit yes! Guaranteed, single-payer, single standard of excellent healthcare for all...yes!
Sure, we're second to none when it comes to being charitable and generous, especially when it comes to turning the other cheek one too many times while the corporate PhRMA, HMO and Insurance industry profit mongers slap the least of us in the face. That's SiCKO! Maybe religion has nothing to do with it, maybe everything. They go to church and miss the lesson, until they're "caught" in their lies and convicted of their greed.
Why are we spending so much money now on a war that most of the country feels is futile and wasteful when we know that the public desperately needs more nurses? It seems to me that the "money changers" are still in the "temple" of the current administration. You know who they are, that 'population' that is taking away the motivation for people...by limiting their choices and restricting their freedom; along with their access to decent housing, education, jobs with fair wages, and health care. They need to be tossed out of office because they're not good stewards of the public's resources.
http://www.SinglePayer.com
Support Ca. SB 840 (Kuehl) - USA HR 676 (Conyers)
"...the call to the nurse is not only for the bedside care of the sick, but to help in seeking out the deep-lying basic causes of illness and misery, that in the future there may be less sickness to nurse and to cure."
Lillian Wald, Founder of Public Health Nursing,
reformer and peace activist, 1914

Jolie, BSN · Jun 15, 2007

I am unable to find a link in this thread that actually discusses the content of SB 840.

Can anyone tell me what the provisions of this bill are? Who is covered? Who is not ? (Are illegal immigrants guaranteed coverage? Do newly arrived legal residents of the State of CA have a waiting period before they are covered?) How will this coverage be funded? (Taxes on employers? Increased payroll tax deductions from workers?) What are the limits of coverage? (Are elective procedures like infertility treatment and cosmetic surgery covered?) Is coverage mandatory? What if a resident has superior insurance coverage thru his employer?

I see a lot of Michael Moore, a lot of hoopla, and few answers to important questions.

pickledpepperRN · Jun 15, 2007

California Universal Healthcare Act

SB 840 (Kuehl), the California Health Insurance Reliability Act, (CHIRA), would provide a single standard of quality health care to all Californians on a fiscally sound, affordable basis, and enables every Californian the right to choose his or her own physician, as it controls health cost inflation.- http://www.guaranteedhealthcare.org/legislation/sb-840-kuehl/california-health-insurance-reliability-act

Text of the bill: http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/sen/sb_0801-0850/sb_840_bill_20070430_amended_sen_v98.pdf

Jolie, BSN · Jun 15, 2007

Thanks, spacenurse.