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GUEST: Deborah Berger, President of California Nurses Association, Donna Gerber, Director of Government Relations for the California Nurses Association

The California Senate Health Committee recently passed a bill that would give all Californians single-payer, universal health care. The bill would create a new state agency that would negotiate rates with health care providers and pay health care costs for California’s approximately 37 million residents. The Medicare-for-All-Californians bill, SB 840, has been championed by its author, Senator Sheila Kuehl for the past four years. This is her likely to be her last effort at getting the bill passed before leaving office in 2008. The committee hearing was packed with hundreds of supporters, many of them union rank and file, as well as supportive business leaders who called upon smaller businesses to also support the bill. Health insurance company spokespeople, spoke out against the bill on the basis that it would put them out of business. Sheila Kuehl’s bill passed the Legislature last year but was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger. Meanwhile, the Assembly Health Committee passed AB 1554, a bill that would regulate health insurance premiums, co-payments, coinsurance obligations and deductibles. Specifically the bill would require HMOs and health insurers to obtain approval from the California Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) or the Department of Insurance (DOI) for increases.

For more information, visit www.guaranteedhealthcare.org.