Over the last few months, we've been sharing periodic updates with you all about our work in California to pass single-payer health care in the state. To keep you all in the loop, we wanted to share with you directly what happened with the bill, AB 1400, and where we go from here.
You can check out the full version in our Medium post here, but we’ll share some of it below:
To recap, January 31 was the deadline for AB 1400, the California Guaranteed Health Care for All Act (CalCare), to pass out of the State Assembly. The bill passed the Health and Appropriations committees and was scheduled for a vote on the floor on that Monday.
But it was pulled just minutes before legislators were going to vote and go on the record about where they stand on guaranteed health care for all people in California.
We deeply disagreed with the decision to pull the bill. After months of organizing by thousands of people across the state, this failure by our elected representatives to take on the greed of the corporate health care industry was a profound disappointment. In their inaction, legislators have chosen to maintain a broken status quo instead of putting patients above profits.
Nevertheless, nurses never give up on their patients. We have fought for decades to ensure that health care is a human right for all people, regardless of ability to pay. We will not stop now.
The campaign to pass CalCare this year was just the latest in a decades-long struggle to transform our health care system. No matter the outcome this year, we have so much to be proud of.
Together our movement:
In short, we organized like hell, and together we built one of the most successful grassroots campaigns to date for guaranteed health care for all in California.
We now have more active volunteers and are more organized than ever before. And despite our setback, we are more determined than ever to continue pushing until we achieve real health care justice.
That’s why we intend to introduce a new bill into the legislature next year. We’ll share more information closer to the summer about how you can get involved in those efforts no matter where you live.
Let us be absolutely clear: corporate-friendly incrementalist approaches to reforming our health care system are incapable of solving the problem. Piecemeal expansions of insurance only bolster the power of insurance, hospital, and pharmaceutical corporations and will not ensure that those who need care can get it.
We must continue building our movement in our communities, in our hospitals, in the streets, conversation by conversation - until health care is a right for all people and not just a privilege for those who can afford it.
We cannot and will not stop until it is done.
Thank you for all you do in the movement. Together, we will win.
Phil Kim
Organizer
Nurses’ Campaign to Win CalCare
P.S. If you’re wondering how you can plug in, our fight for Medicare for All at the national level isn’t slowing down, and we need your help. We’re organizing a National Medicare for All Strategy Call on Monday, Feb 28th, at 5 PT/8 ET. RSVP here to join us on that call!
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