Yesterday, Senate Bill 810 (Leno-S.F.), a bill that guarantees affordable health insurance for all residents of California, passed the full Senate on a vote of 22 to 14.  This bill passed because of the long-term and arduous work of activists like you.  For that, we thank you.  Since the Senate vote, many of you have called and asked, “What’s next?”

Next, the bill is assigned to the Assembly Health Committee.  In the coming weeks we will know when the bill is scheduled for a hearing.  According to the official Assembly calendar, SB 810 must pass the Health Committee by July 2.  After passing the Health Committee, it will be sent to the Assembly Appropriations Committee for a hearing.  It must pass Appropriations by August 13.  Finally, it must pass the full Assembly by August 31 at which time the bill is sent to the Governor.

We have much work to do.  We will ultimately need 41 votes on the Assembly floor for passage.  Although we have successfully passed SB 840 (the former number of SB 810) twice through the Senate and Assembly, only to have Governor Schwarzenegger veto it twice, this time around there is a new political dynamic in play.  Beginning last week, the Republicans are aggressively fighting the legislation and are presenting verifiably false information to reporters.  Unfortunately, most reporters are letting the lies go unchallenged and report the lies as fact.  This is why we have much work to do.  We must overcome the false propaganda and continually educate ourselves, our colleagues, friends, neighbors and families and, of course, our Assembly members.

During the coming months, the OneCare Campaign will provide you with up-to-date information, Action Alerts, and things you can do to help grow our movement and educate fellow Californians.  As part of our educational campaign, starting March 1, a 30-second video ad that will highlight a fact about single payer health care, will be emailed to you each day for a year!  Stay tuned.  The ads will feature your friends and neighbors as well as famous celebrities.  By the end of the Ad Campaign, our legislators  and you will have received 365 educational messages.  You can help make our ad campaign “go viral” which will create the largest grassroots ad campaign in history.

Finally, thank you for your financial support.  You have made the difference.  We know we can count on you which is why we know that WE WILL WIN!

By Lois Capps

The weather may be cooling off in Washington, but health reform is still the hottest topic! We’ve made tremendous progress since the last time I updated you and we’re on track to send the President a bill by the end of the year. The House and Senate are working on combining their respective committees’ versions now that all five committees of jurisdiction have passed health insurance reform legislation. It’s no secret that the process has been long and strenuous, but legislation this important deserves the careful attention we have given it.

I have been working in the House to ensure that the final bill we send to the President’s desk will achieve our shared goal: access to quality, affordable health care for all Americans. As the final version is prepared for a vote on the Floor, I am continuing to advocate for including a robust public option, retaining protections for Medicare beneficiaries, and investing in our next generation of health professionals. Inclusion of these vital provisions will mean better access to affordable, quality health care for all of us on the Central and South Coasts.

I’m especially encouraged by the improvements in women’s health that are contained in our proposed legislation. As you may know, many health insurance companies engage in a practice known as “gender rating,” where they charge women much higher premiums simply for being women. This gender discrimination would finally come to an end with enactment of H.R. 3200. Furthermore, women can expect improvements such as automatic coverage of maternity care; no more copayments for mammograms in Medicare, Medicaid or private insurance; and guaranteed access to care because insurers will no longer be able to deny coverage due to pre-existing conditions such as having had a Caesarian section. I am proud of the steps we have taken on this important issue.

I have also appreciated the opportunity to discuss health reform with my constituents. During September and October, I continued getting input of my constituents by holding three health care information sessions and two telephone town halls, and convening a panel with local doctors to review the legislation pending in Congress.

I’ve truly appreciated your feedback. I know that we may not agree on everything, but most of us agree that the current situation is unsustainable. I look forward to continuing our ongoing conversations and hope to report back soon with news of further progress on health insurance reform.

Please click through the links to the right to find more information about health reform, and feel free to forward this to your family and friends.

Sincerely,

LOIS CAPPS
Member of Congress

Congresswoman Lois Capps will co-host a community information session on comprehensive health insurance reform for residents of the 23rd Congressional District on Friday, September 4th from 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm at the Bethel AME Church, located at 855 South F Street in Oxnard.   Joining Capps in co-hosting the event are local faith community members, including Pastor Robert Cox, of the Bethel  AME Church.  The Ventura County League of Women Voters will assist in administering this event.  Capps will discuss comprehensive health insurance reform legislation being considered by Congress, the America’s Affordable Health Choices Act (H.R. 3200), and answer audience questions about the legislation.

The information session will be moderated by Tim Gallagher and Capps will be joined by local health care experts Dr. Robert Gonzalez, Medical Director of the Ventura County Health Care Agency, and Katharine Raley, Program Manager, Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Program, who will also discuss the legislation and answer audience questions.  The event is free and open to the public; however, seating is limited and will be on a first-come, first-served basis.  Priority may be given to residents of the 23rd Congressional District.   Please note that audience members will not be allowed to bring signs or other distinguishing materials into Bethel AME Church during the information session.  Seating inside the church is limited to 250 people.

“Americans have a strong tradition of thoughtfully considering the most pressing policy questions of our time and the discussion about comprehensive health insurance reform is no exception.  Reforming our broken health insurance system is a cause that I’ve been extensively involved in throughout my life and I am strongly supportive of our reform legislation, the America’s Affordable Health Choices Act (H.R. 3200).  I welcome the public’s interest in this legislation and I look forward to continuing this conversation with my constituents on the need for comprehensive health insurance reform at this information session in Oxnard.  I believe by working together we can ensure that all Americans have access to quality, affordable health care.”

WHO: Congresswoman Lois Capps; Pastor Robert Cox; Tim Gallagher; Dr. Robert Gonzalez, Medical Director, Ventura County Health Care Agency; Katharine Raley, Program Manager, Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Program; League of Women Voters; Faith Community Members; and Residents of the 23rd Congressional District

WHAT: Community Information Session on Comprehensive Health Insurance Reform

WHEN: 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm, Friday, September 4

WHERE: Bethel AME Church
855 South F Street,
Oxnard, CA

Our Health Care Forum on August 12 resulted in 50 new members to the Democratic Club of the Conejo Valley!  This is a very big deal.  I hate to admit it but lately there is more energy coming from the far right than we have seen in years.  Sure – its crazy, angry, misguided and corporate funded but energy just the same.   Obama has got them excited in the way Bush got us excited.  They are scared and dangerous. 

On the other hand the Dems have been pretty quiet since our victories in November 2008 and the inauguration in January 2009.  Of course this all makes some sense and can be explained by human nature – success breads complacency.  Failure can lead many directions but for Dems during the Bush years it served as motivation.  Our highest levels of membership and meeting attendance occurred during the aftermath of the Kerry loss in 2004.

All this background leads me  back to just how extraordinary it was for us to have had our best meeting attendance in years as well as the amazing number of new members signed up.   There is very good news here.  We are responding well to the anger and energy coming from the right.  Also I think we are starting to wake up.  Our 2008 victories were wonderful and the efforts extended to earn them were significant so some time to recharge is understood… but it is time to get back in the game! 

Congrats to Debbie Birenbaum and the DCCV leadership for pulling off such a successful event.  We should continue to be thoughtful about our meeting speakers and agendas.  A well planned meeting can increase our membership, create press coverage leading to further outreach and even more membership.  Each member is a potential volunteer to walk, call and support our voter registration and get out the vote efforts for the big elections in 2010.  This will lead to the end of the 2/3 rule and help us elect a Dem Governor who will sign Single Payer Health Care into law.  Our events are informative and fun but ultimately the building blocks of a strategy to win elections and finish the business we started last November. 

The donkey is waking up… and not a moment too soon. 

A Health Care Forum will be held on August 12 at the Thousand Oaks Library beginning promptly at 6:30.  This event is co-sponsored by the Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles, Democratic Club of the Conejo Valley, Simi/Moorpark Democratic Club, Camarillo Democratic Club, SoCal Grassroots.  The Library is located at 1401 E. Janss Road in Thousand Oaks.

In my opinion, Single Payer Health Care (SPHC) is the best alternative to fix our broken health care system.  I hope you will attend the Health Care Forum on Wednesday, August 12, 2009, at 6:30 PM, at the Thousand Oaks Library to learn more about this issue and its solution.  This event is sponsored by the Democratic Club of the Conejo Valley, Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles, Simi/Moorpark Democratic Club, Camarillo Democratic Club and SoCal Grassroots.  While many of us support SPHC we are also aware that President Obama is working hard to reform our health care system at the national level.  I will attempt to provide a very broad illustration of the key elements of these two solutions.  I will also lay out why it is important to respect and understand that, as Democratic activists, some of us may be drawn to support either or both plans.

SPHC is a plan that eliminates the insurance companies and uses the administrative cost savings to insure the uninsured.  It has been called Medicare for all.  SPHC  is currently working its way through the California legislature in the form of Senate Bill 810, sponsored by Mark Leno.  Senate Bill 810 is the successor bill to Senate Bill 840 which was sponsored by Sheila Kuehl.  One way to learn more about SPHC is to visit the Healthcare For All website at www.healthcareforall.org.   Healthcare For All has a very detailed strategy to pass SPHC in California with the expectation of an eventual state by state adoption.

President Obama’s national health care plan is evolving as we go to press.  Rather than repeat the failure to gain heath care reform that occurred during the Clinton administration, the President is first asking Congress to present legislation within the parameters that he presented during the campaign.  His goal is a plan that provides and mandates coverage for most Americans; contains a choice between existing insurance plans and a public plan; and is financed by deficit neutral cost saving measures.   President Obama believes there is no political viability for a SPHC plan at the national level.  Even the public option part of his plan is becoming a hard sell to Blue Dog Democrats and of course most Republicans.  More information about the President’s national health care plan can be obtained by visiting www.healthreform.gov.

We are looking at two battles:  1) a long term battle for SPHC for California (and eventually the rest of the country) and 2) a battle now at the national level for Obama’s health care reform.  There is concern among some SPHC supporters that a watered down national program may be so ineffective that even if passed the result will hurt the chance for success of SPHC.  Both plans face uphill battles primarily due to the health care insurance industry’s willingness and ability to spend vast sums in order to maintain status quo. 

I suggest that Democrats do their own homework and decide which health care reform campaign they wish to support with their volunteer hours and pocketbooks.  Supporters of both campaigns are recruiting volunteers at the club level to participate in phone banking and other outreach activities.  This is similar to when we are asked to work for local and state level candidates versus national candidates.  We need to make up our own minds on how our efforts can be most useful within the constraints of our time and resources.  During 2008, I worked on the campaigns for Obama for President, my local school district bond/tax measures and for local candidates.    There will be many issues and candidates to support in 2009, 2010 and beyond.  I hope you will be active, while remaining supportive and respectful of your fellow activists regardless of how they choose to support Democratic candidates and causes.   Very critically, whenever possible, we should try to coordinate our efforts in these endeavors.

Jay Kapitz
Election Strategy Chair
Democratic Club of the Conejo Valley

National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, the largest eating disorders outreach effort in the country, is held the last week in every February and has helped reach millions of people with messages of prevention, hope and recovery.  The mission of National Eating Disorders Awareness Week is to ultimately prevent eating disorders and body image issues while reducing the stigma surrounding eating disorders and improving access to treatment. Eating disorders are serious, life-threatening illnesses — not choices — and it’s important to recognize the pressures, attitudes and behaviors that shape the disorder.

National Eating Disorders Awareness Week is a collective effort of volunteers, eating disorder professionals, health care providers, educators, social workers, and individuals committed to raising awareness of the dangers surrounding eating disorders and the need for early intervention and treatment.

Rader Programs in Oxnard, California, has over 25 years experience in the treatment of eating disorders.  As part of a national effort to support National Eating Disorders Awareness Week and raise awareness, Rader Programs will be hosting a free event for the public on Tuesday, February 24, 6:30 PM at the Thousand Oaks Library.  There will be an interactive experiential presentation to help the public understand the basis of eating disorders and the devastating effects they have on both the victims and their families.

To obtain more information about this event, call 800-841- 1515 or visit www.raderprograms.com.

On Wednesday evening, December 17th, a health care coalition group met in Ventura in response to the request from former Senator Tom Daschle.  Daschle, the member of President Elect Obama’s transition team designated as Secretary of Health and Human Services, stipulated that groups concerned about the health care disaster in this country should meet before December 31 to discuss proposals for reform.

The group meeting in Ventura comprised representatives from a range of party affiliations and activist organizations.  That being so, the complete unanimity of opinion expressed was something of a surprise.  Everyone at the meeting strongly urged support for HR 676, the health care bill authored by John Conyers that is currently before the House of Representatives.

House Resolution 676 is the United States National Health Insurance Act (USNHI), also called the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act.  It provides for health coverage for all individuals residing in the United States.  The coverage would include all necessary services, including primary care and prevention; inpatient, outpatient, and emergency care; prescription drugs; medical equipment; long term care; mental health services; dental services other than cosmetic; substance abuse treatment; chiropractic care; and basic vision care and correction.  These benefits would be available anywhere in the United States without cost-sharing, deductibles, or co-payments.

No institution can be a participating provider in the proposed USNHI unless it is a public or not-for-profit institution.  The conversion to a not-for-profit health care system would take place over a 15 year period through sale of U.S. Treasury Bonds.  An overview of the program’s funding includes ways in which savings in health care expenditures will be achieved, such as by reducing paperwork and by bulk procurement of medications, as well as ways in which the program will be financed.  The latter include using Federal government revenues allotted to existing health care programs, increasing income taxes for the top 5% of income earners, a modest payroll tax, and a small tax on stock and bond transactions.  The program would be administrated on national, regional, and state levels.

The Ventura advisory group’s strong, indeed impassioned, endorsement of HR 676 stimulated comments addressing issues raised by those who propose compromise measures—including some of Mr. Daschle’s proposals in his recently published book, Critical: What We Can Do About the Health Care Crisis.  One such proposal was that Americans who want to keep their employer-based insurance should be allowed to do so.  In opposition to this proposal, mention was made of the relationship between the current economic melt-down, government bailouts, and the crippling burden that health care costs place on businesses small and large (including the collapsing auto manufacturers).  The group’s clear consensus was that health care is not the business of business.

Another of the proposals in Daschle’s book is that all Americans should be required to buy health insurance (not just that all children should be insured as Obama suggests).  In  addition to calling into question the advisability–morally, ethically, or any other which way–of having the government force its citizens to make expenditures that could impose severe financial hardships, this is obviously a method of continuing the stranglehold of the HMOs on American health care (or the lack of it).  The simple fact is that “for-profit health care” is a grotesque oxymoron the practice of which has plunged the richest nation on earth to the lowest levels of medical care for its citizens among not only developed countries but most undeveloped nations as well.

In response to various compromise measures that have been offered as ways to keep the fore mentioned for-profit health insurance corporations in business, members of the group cited various state programs.  These have conspicuously failed.  In the course of the discussion, the dreaded ‘s’ word was said right out loud, evoking the specter of ultimate evil: socialism.  In the lamentable history of efforts to provide American citizens with decent health care, the phrase “socialized medicine” has been astonishingly effective in preventing any sane solution from being considered.

To quote Vice President Cheney, who, whatever his failings cannot be accused of mealy-mouthing around: “So?”

Among those reasons for which “We the people of the United States…do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America” is listed to “promote the general Welfare.”  We do not have a for-profit military to “provide for the common defense.”  We do not have for-profit police forces to “insure domestic tranquility.”  We do not have a for-profit judicial system to “establish justice.”  There is no possible justification, at least if we intend to continue trying to live under a rule of law based on the U.S. Constitution, for having for-profit health care to “promote the general Welfare.”  This is the business of government as delineated in our Constitution.

The group which convened Wednesday in Ventura was unanimous in urging Secretary-to-be Daschle and President Elect Obama to do whatever is in their considerable power to see that HR 676 becomes the health care system in the United States.  This is the rightful business of government, according to our Constitution, and 221 years later it is time for the Federal government to get around to it.