Nurses Speak Out For Healthcare!! Healthcare Yes!, Insurance Companies NO!

SB840, put up for the thrid time by Senator Sheila Keuhl, will take insurance companies and profits out of state health care. It covers all Californians with no out-of-pocket payments at all. Additionally, it includes all medically required services including dental, vision, and prescription drugs, and will add chiropractic and acupuncture services. The State becomes the "Single Payer", with all profits taken out of the system and insurance companies eliminated as providers. This will reduce waiting times, eliminate insurance-based denials of care, make care affordable for all, and can reduce administrative costs from the current 30% on every dollar down to 3-5%, the current percent of administrative costs in the government-run Medicare system. It can be a model for a National "Single Payer" system and is real, comprehensive reform.

The bill passed the legislature last year on its second try and was vetoed by Schwartzenegger. The current bill was passed in the Senate on June 6 and is now in the Assembly Health Committee. Schwartzenegger and Senator Nunez each have competing bills which purport to cover all Californians but do nothing to reform the system. Both may well make care more costly, and serve to divide citizens on the issue. For much more information and to get involved, go to SinglePayerNow.net.

In the first MP3, Holly Severson of the San Mateo Mental Health System provides quantitative data describing the structural problems in health care. (6 minutes)