As Bernie Sanders delays national single-payer debate, California nurses keep the heat on the Legislature

Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, CA)

July 03--SACRAMENTO -- The day after Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders told CNN he would delay the release of his universal health-care plan until the Affordable Care Act debate has ended in Congress, the sponsors of a similar California proposal are keeping the heat on a legislative leader who moved to block it from advancing this year.

The California Nurses Association and other supporters held a rally at the Capitol Monday, staging a sit-in outside the Assembly chamber, to pressure Speaker Anthony Rendon to change his mind and allow the state's single-payer health care bill to move through his house.

"This is a bill that could be the change for health care in this country," said Kathy Dennis, a registered nurse from Sacramento's Mercy Hospital, who was among the demonstrators. "We will keep pursuing single-payer health care for all because this is about access."

Despite intense pressure, the speaker has not signaled he will change course on Senate Bill 562, by Sens. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, and Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, to create one, government-run health care plan for all Californians. The plan would include seniors on Medicare, the undocumented and those with private health insurance. Under such a plan, Californians would see their premiums, deductibles and co-pays disappear and their taxes increase.

In early June, the state Senate passed SB 562, but the bill did not include key details, such as how the plan would be financed.

Few in the Capitol expected the bill to pass this year, given the complicated health care and tax implications and Gov. Jerry Brown's publicly-expressed skepticism. Still, when Rendon announced that he was sending the "woefully incomplete" bill back to the Senate for more work, supporters unleashed their frustration on the Democrat, calling his act undemocratic and "cowardly" and accusing him of caving to industry groups.

Sanders -- the godfather of the single-payer cause -- also criticized Rendon's decision, saying he was "extremely disappointed."

Last week, Rendon told reporters he and his family received death threats on social media, which lawmakers on both sides of the aisle denounced. Noticeably absent from the signs used by demonstrators on Monday was the violent image deployed last week -- a California bear with a butcher's knife bearing Rendon's name in its back.

But criticism of Rendon has not eased -- to which anyone visiting the Capitol on Monday could attest. Echoes of "Free the bill!" and "People, not profits!" and "Rendon, Rendon, shame on you!" echoed through the halls.

The California Nurses Association sent an email to reporters late last week stating that since 2012, the Democrat had received more than $82,000 from "business groups and health care corporations" on record opposing the measure. The group cited an International Business Times analysis of campaign donations from the nonpartisan, Helena, Montana-based National Institute on Money in State Politics.

But campaign contributions to Rendon have hardly been one-sided. An East Bay Times and Mercury News review of the Secretary of State's campaign finance data showed that Rendon received more than $72,000 from two California nurses' organizations -- the United Nurses Associations of California and the California Nurses Association -- during the same time period.

Rendon's spokesman Kevin Liao called the assertion of corporate influence "completely fallacious," saying the speaker had met only with the nurses about the bill.

Why are the bill's most ardent backers so intent on pushing the bill through now? Some reason it will take years to get a single-payer system up and running and that California can't afford the delay -- or a loss of the momentum that the national health care debate seems to have galvanized.

"I've never seen this kind of grassroots movement before," said Pilar Schiavo of the California Nurses Association, who is coordinating the Campaign for a Health California.

Single-payer health care gained huge popularity on the left with Sanders' presidential campaign, and some supporters hope it becomes a new litmus test for Democratic candidates. They argue that eliminating the profits, advertising costs and overhead of private insurance companies would cut costs, saving the average consumer money, and that it would give the state new bargaining power to negotiate lower rates for drugs and services. A recent study commissioned by the nurses estimated that Californians would save $37 billion per year, even after adding nearly three million uninsured, under such a proposal.

Still, the prospect of raising taxes, even in California, is a heavy political lift, and the health insurance industry will fight it hard. The state also would need waivers from the Trump administration to spend its federal health care dollars for Medi-Cal and Medicare on its own single-payer plan, which is highly uncertain. Others note that state spending limits and other budget rules could require that voters sign off on such a plan before it could take effect, even if Legislature passes the bill -- a possibility that the coalition backing the bill is now researching, said Schiavo.

"We believe there are other options," she said Monday.

And many -- including Sanders, himself -- are waiting to see what will become of the Affordable Care Act.

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"We are going to introduce it literally as soon as we're through with this debate," Sanders told CNN's Tapper on Sunday's State of the Union program. "I don't want to confuse the two issues."

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