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The prevailing attitude seems to be that if you just ignore SB 840 and the support it has among a majority of
Californians, maybe it will just go away. Legislators aren't listening - with a few exceptions, the Governor has never
listened - to the people, and the insurance industry can't hear us over the jingling of their outrageous profits. And,
many legislators can't see us over the stacks of cash they receive from the insurance lobby.
The just announced coalition on health care ignores a core constituency in the fight for adequate and affordable care.
The coalition's plan favors businesses, particularly the insurance industry, while ignoring working Californians and
leaving them subject to ever increasing premiums though a plan that requires individuals to buy health insurance, but
doesn't cap increases in premiums to consumers. The CNA and CSEA call the idea a Trojan Horse because it is being passed
off as universal coverage when all it really does is require people who can't afford the outrageous premiums to still
buy health insurance, but does nothing to control cost.
Current law says every automobile owner must purchase auto insurance, yet we don't call it universal auto insurance.
Why? Because simply requiring people to have insurance doesn't mean they can or will. Mandating that everyone purchase
health insurance doesn't make it universal, it just makes it required.
Ignoring this "gold standard" solution contained in SB 840 allows the Governor and insurance lobbyist to make up their
own so-called facts about the Gov's plan. Made up "facts" like:
The governor's plan would cover more people than any other proposal - and require hospitals and doctors to subsidize
insurance for the poor. [Sacramento Bee, 5/11/07]
Under SB 840 every California resident would be provided with reliable, high quality, affordable, efficient, guaranteed
health care coverage. That's every California resident. You can't cover more people than every.
Schwarzenegger's plan could also drive premiums to as high as $7,320 a year per household, the union said, citing costs
from a statewide health coverage plan recently implemented in Massachusetts.
"Medicare for All" - which is essentially what SB 840 is - is the best solution to California's health care crisis.
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That is the message the California Nurses Association and California School Employees Association would like to get out.
There is only one problem, they are being ignored.
Besides, as Lt. Governor John Garamendi likes to say, we already have universal health care in this country, you just
have to live long enough to take advantage of it. It's called Medicare. The majority of Californians support and want
"Medicare for All."
That is why SB 840 has to be ignored by policymakers, the press and insurance companies, and replaced by a Trojan Horse
idea. That is why the insurance industry has to collude with Schwarzenegger to push the Trojan Horse plan. If word gets
out about how perfect a solution a truly universal plan like SB 840 is, people would be demanding enactment. And if
there's one thing the legislature doesn't want it's the people telling them what to do.