ABX1 1: Universal health insurance without health care - January 14, 2008
by Claudia Chaufan | Indybay.org/news
The "Health Care Security and Cost Reduction Act", also known as ABX1 1, and described by New York Times reporter Kevin Sack as a "bipartisan blueprint" conceived by Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic Assembly speaker Fabian Nunez to bring "near-universal coverage to the country's most populous state", will neither provide health care security nor reduce costs of medical care. This article explains why.

Letter to the Editor in San Deigo Union Tribune - January 3, 2008
Jeoffry B. Gordon, MD, MPH Mandating insurance provides neither a guarantee of affordable insurability, nor actual medical services, nor does it resolve the problems of the tremendously expensive administrative overhead and system inefficiencies of the private insurance based system. Legislated mandates for health insurance have been tried in Massachusetts (1988, 2006), Oregon (1989), Minnesota (1992), Tennessee (1992), Vermont (1993), Washington State (1993) and none have worked.

Senate Floor Statement from Senator Sheila Kuehl On Assembly Bill 8 - September 12, 2007
Our health insurance company driven system has responded to runaway health care spending by dismantling the entire system. The only questions they ask are “How many people can we turn away; how many of our clients can we kick out, how many people can we underinsure?” Rather than working to contain spending in a patient centered manner, they’ve created huge profits for themselves by raising premiums, cutting benefits, and limiting access in countless ways.

In support of a single-payer system - July 24, 2007
Ann Troy, M.D. | AAP News
Last year Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed SB 840, a bill that would have established a single payer system to provide health care for all Californians. Under SB840, patients would be able to choose their own doctors; doctors would remain private, able to practice the way they want, paid fairly and simply on a fee for service basis; and California would save billions of dollars.

Smashing success? - July 24, 2007
Claudia Chaufan, MD, PhD | Letter to the Editor | DOC News
As economist Paul Krugman noted, the power of a single payer pool allows the VA to get better deals even for drugs not-included in the formulary which enrollees can get once their doctors make a special request on their behalf. It also accounts for the VA's substantially lower administrative costs when compared to the current Medicare drug benefit in the hands of the private insurance sector.

A second opinion on Big Medicine - July 24, 2007
By SUSAN SWARTZ | PRESS DEMOCRAT COLUMNIST
Come on. Big Medicine -- the pharmaceuticals, insurance companies, medical associations and their friends in high places -- has been telling its side for as long as we've lived. And so effectively that we came to unquestionably believe in the natural superiority of American health care, the inferior systems of Canada and other backward countries and to tremble at the very suggestion of universal health care: Eek, socialized medicine! Eek, Communist takeover!

Moore lobbies Sacramento for healing - June 13, 2007
Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Staff Writer | San Francisco Chronicle
As Michael Moore stood on the west steps of the Capitol on Tuesday and led 1,000 activists in chanting "It's time for them to go" -- health insurance companies, that is -- he looked less like a Hollywood director promoting his new takedown of the health care industry and more like the frontman of a national political campaign.

Unhealthy plan - June 11, 2007
DR. URSULA ROLFE and DR. JOHN R. SHEARER | Santa Rosa Press Democrat
More and more health-care providers believe we must abandon a market-based approach. Under mandated insurance, most people would be able to afford only a bare-bones policy, and few would be able to pay the thousands of dollars in deductibles required. These plans would replace the millions of uninsured with millions of underinsured, who would still avoid seeking needed care.

Let voters reform health care - June 11, 2007
By David Lazarus | San Francisco Chronicle
So I say this: Let the people decide. If our lawmakers can't or won't recognize the urgent need for universal coverage, then it's time to repackage SB840 as a ballot initiative and put it to a vote by those most directly impacted by our obscenely dysfunctional health care system -- us.

The Future of Healthcare in California - May 16, 2007
by State Senator Leland Yee
The single biggest issue that the State Legislature will address in 2007 is California’s healthcare system. The most significant problems with our current healthcare system are the exorbitant cost and the operational inefficiency. These factors work to exclude many average working people from having access to essential care. Without affordable healthcare, families are forced to depend on emergency rooms for basic health care and struggle with exorbitant bills, while our entire economy suffers. This has created a growing crisis for patients, healthcare providers, and taxpayers alike.

Health care plan veto won't stop lawmaker - May 16, 2007
Tom Chorneau | San Francisco Chronicle, Sacramento Bureau
The debate over health care reform in California has focused on proposals from the governor and legislative leaders aimed at expanding private insurance coverage to more residents. But there's another idea -- one with the support of legions of enthusiastic voters and a majority of the Legislature: Replace private insurance with a system managed by the state, the so-called single-payer system.

California Senate Health Committee Passes Universal Healthcare Act - April 24, 2007
California’s 2007 healthcare debate moved in to high gear today as the state Senate Health Committee approved two key bills to guarantee healthcare for all Californians before hundreds of people in a packed chamber that filled two rooms. SB 840, Sen. Sheila Kuehl’s Universal Healthcare Act, and its companion financing bill, SB 1014, passed by 6-4 votes Wednesday night following an impassioned call by Kuehl earlier during the committee hearing for action on the state’s healthcare crisis. There were also statements of support by representatives of dozens of community organizations.

CaPA on NPR's Marketplace - March 19, 2007
- CaPA member Jeoffry Gordon, MD, MPH, San Diego, read on Marketplace on National Public Radio As an employer and a family doctor, I have an intimate familiarity with problems in the financing of medical care. David Frum’s March 7th...

Health-care solution - March 14, 2007
JOHN R. SHEARER, M.D. | Petaluma, CA | San Francisco Chronicle
Editor -- The contentions in Mike DeNunzio's March 9 letter ("Walter Reed hypothesis'') need to be addressed. He repeats the propaganda about the generally excellent Canadian health-care system. His description of bed shortages, bureaucracy, long lines and impersonal care seems more like California than Canada.

Get Involved in the California Single-Payer Movement - February 22, 2007
Dear CaPA Members and Friends, Have you wished you could find the time to get involved in promoting single payer health care reform? The opportunity is here now. On noon on Tuesday, February 27, Senator Sheila Kuehl will be holding...

A vote for single-payer health - January 25, 2007
Dr. Ann Troy | Marin Independent Journal | Article Launched: 01/12/2007
If we get the insurance industry out of health care, we will have more than enough money to provide health care for all and to pay doctors and hospitals fairly for their services. No longer will people have to change doctors every time they change jobs or their employer finds a cheaper health plan. Nor will they have to worry about losing their access to health care if they lose their job or develop a chronic condition. No longer will families struggle to pay astronomical insurance premiums nor worry about paying for prescription drugs. No longer will 50 percent of bankruptcies be due to medical debt.

CNA Responds to Schwarzenegger's Health Reform Plan - January 18, 2007
Six responses from the California Nurses Association on Schwarzenegger's health reform plan.

Letters: Rethinking health care options - January 17, 2007
The Register's editorial, "A healthy dose of free-market forces"[Jan.2], makes a case for controlling health care spending by reducing government insurance programs and encouraging lower-cost private coverage options that shift more of the spending responsibility to the individual. Such changes theoretically would reduce the "perverse incentives" to obtain too much care if the individual had to pay for it directly.

A second, third and fourth opinion on healthcare - January 17, 2007
By State Sen. Sheila James Kuehl | LA Times | January 9, 2007
Four healthcare proposals are now before the Legislature, including one crafted by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, which will be spotlighted in his State of the State address tonight.

STATE FED, TOP CALIF. NURSES UNION HIT SCHWARZENEGGER HEALTH CARE PLAN - January 17, 2007
The California AFL-CIO and the state's top nurses union--which led the successful drive against GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's anti-union referenda two years ago--blasted the healthcare plan "The Terminator" unveiled Jan. 8.