Thought everyone would be interested in this. The California senate has just passed a single-payer health care bill. Governor Arnie the terminator will veto it for sure, but, what the hell, progress is happening.
California Chronicle
Leno´s Single-Payer, Universal Health Care Bill Clears Senate
California Political Desk
January 29, 2010
SACRAMENTO – The California Senate today passed legislation that guarantees all Californians comprehensive, universal health care. The California Universal Health Care Act, authored by Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), is the only health care reform proposal that is proven to contain health care costs while simultaneously improving quality of care and the delivery of services.
“Solving health care isn´t about leftwing or rightwing politics – it´s about the future of the middle class,” said Senator Leno. “Our state is being bankrupted by out of control health care costs, and a single-payer universal health care system has been proven to save billions of dollars a year for businesses, families and government,” he said.
The California Universal Health Care Act creates a private-public partnership to provide every California resident medical, dental, vision, hospitalization and prescription drug benefits and allows patients to choose their own doctors and hospitals. This “Medicare for All” type of program works by pooling together the money that government, employers and individuals already spend on health care and putting it to better use by cutting out the for-profit middle man.
Unless you’re satirizing (making a “transformative” use), it is against fair use laws to reprint in toto a news piece, or any other copyright-protected article on the web.
I edited this myself to reflect the proper approach – an excerpt, cleanly separated and identified as an excerpt, and a link to the original piece. Please be aware that diaries that break fair use laws could get GMD into trouble, and are therefore subject to deletion with-or-without notice.
It’s a big deal. Blogs have been sued.
Thanks Odum: Acb, Sorry about that. Spaced out on the copyright laws. The article was e-mailed to me in its entirety and, buzzing along thinking the once it was out there in the open air the pubic owned them.
Thanks for sharing this Watercloset!
Sue, with any luck it will help. I hope Racine looks at this. If the momentum is going out west it will help that much more here. I am curious on what happens when Arnie, the terminator, vetoes the bill, if the legislators can override it. If they do it will have a dramatic affect on this side of the country.
I saw this when you posted it as a comment – thanks! The California bill looks like an interesting approach to health care reform – I’m looking at it more closely to see if there is anything there that can be useful here.
-Doug
Thanks, Doug:
You know as well as I do that Arnie the terminator will veto such a bill, but, perhaps the legislature can override it this time. The momentum is certainly there as it is here, despite its being overshadowed now by the lying disaster that is Vermont Yankee. Everyone knows Douglas will send it back, but, well, he was overridden twice last year. If California manages to do it, that will knock a few more pins out from the governor’s arguments. This, of course, is perhaps a dream, but it is worth thinking about.
Thanks again, Doug. Please keep trying with the health and welfare commmittee.