Oakland City Council to Consider SB 840 Endorsement

At the behest of the League of Women Voters of Oakland, Council President Ignacio de la Fuente has agreed to introduce a resolution endorsing SB 840, Senator Kuehl's single payer legislation that would provide access to health care for all state residents. His resolution will go to the Rules Committee July 13 and to the full Council Tuesday, July 18. Plan to join us at the Oakland City Council meeting July 18 to show your support! This important endorsement should open doors for our campaign in Oakland and throughout the East Bay.

SB 840 Moving Through the Assembly to the Governor's Desk!

Sometime in August, SB 840 will be referred by the Assembly Rules Committee to the Appropriations Committee, where it is expected to pass (this committee includes 8 co-authors and only 10 votes are needed for passage.) The focus, therefore, is on the Assembly floor vote, where 41 votes are needed for passage. Senator Kuehl's office has divided Democratic non-co-authors of the bill into 3 groups: high risk of voting against the bill, medium risk and low risk. None of our local Assembly reps fit in the risky categories, but you may have friends and relatives who live in the districts of those whose vote is needed. For example, Joe Canciamilla of Pittsburg is rated as a medium risk, as is Rebecca Cohn of Saratoga and Joe Coto of San Jose. Lois Wolk (Davis) is rated a low risk, and San Rafael's Joe Nation is rated high risk. Urge people you know in those districts to contact their Assembly members to vote for SB 840 next month.

Earlier in June Kuehl's staff met with lobbyists and representatives from a number of organizations, such as CNA, CSEA, CFT, CTA, CaPA, Health Access, the Latino Issues Forum and Health Care for All-California. Meeting participants divied up responsibility for meeting with the 15 non-co-authors to seek commitment of their votes for SB 840.

Building support for this action in the Assembly, the OneCareNow/365 City Campaign will launch in mid-August, close to the Appropriations Committee vote. As this campaign proceeds we will be explicitly demanding passage of SB 840 by the Assembly. With a victory in the Assembly, our 365-City Campaign will surge forward with a parallel public education and organizing effort aimed at Governor Schwarzenegger.

For more information, check OneCareNow.org and healthcareforall.org. To plug in locally, call Vote Health at (510) 832-8683 or contact us by email at info@VoteHealth.org. Or come by our literature table at the Healthy Living Festival on July 14 from 9am to 2pm, at the Lake Merritt Garden Center and Bandstand, 666 Bellevue Ave., Oakland. You can purchase OneCareNow bumper stickers there and pick up the latest flyer!.

Supervisor Carson Secures Additional Funding for ACMC

After years of tight budgets, the Medical Center has a bit of breathing room. In response to requests made by SEIU Local 616 and Vote Health, Board of Supervisors President Keith Carson moved to increase county funding for the Medical Center by $8 million. Supervisors Scott Haggerty and Nate Miley spoke in favor of the proposal, and the full board approved the funding when it adopted the county's budget on June 23.

During the week prior to the board vote, members of Vote Health and SEIU stepped up to support the funding request. Supervisors Carson and Haggerty, the president and vice president of the board, received hundreds of faxes, emails and phone calls. SEIU Local 616 created an online petition, www.petitiononline.com/HelpACMC, that criticized the county's effort to siphon off Measure A revenue through various "charges," including $11 million in "debt" repayment, $6.6 million interest payment on this questionable debt, and $1.5 million in rent for ACMC's three health clinics. ACMC faced a budget deficit because of these county charges.

Medical Center CEO Wright Lassiter faced a $30 million budget deficit heading into the new fiscal year. The Medical Center closed this gap by increasing revenue, reducing expenses and eliminating 120 positions, about half of which are currently filled. ACMC had considered a second round of staff cuts to balance its budget
before the county agreed to increase its support for the Medical Center.

Lassiter will present his proposal on how to use the additional county funds later this summer. He is likely to set aside some of the money as a reserve, while using the remainder to meet his budget priorities:
Improve the quality of clinical services;
Increase access to services, especially primary and specialty care; and
Invest in staff recruitment and retention, and staff training.

Lassiter will discuss his strategic vision for the Medical Center, including his plan to rebuild facilities to meet strict seismic standards, at Vote Health's meeting on Monday, June 17.

Dellums Considering Health Care Options for Oakland

Oakland mayor-elect Ron Dellums will convene a community task force to consider health care options for the 80,000 uninsured city residents. The San Francisco Chronicle ran an article on June 26, reporting that Dellums met with county officials last winter to discuss various options. The article quoted Supervisor Keith Carson, who said that Dellums "got an incredible reception" at his meetings with the county.
No doubt, the task force will follow the debate in San Francisco, where the Mayor and Board of Supervisors are considering a universal health care system for its 82,000 uninsured. According to the Chronicle, the San Francisco plan would cost upwards of $200 million a year and rely on SF General Hospital and the city's network of community clinics.

Newsletter committee:
Jan Arnold, Bradley Cleveland, Kay Eisenhower and Jim Forsyth.
Our thanks to CA Nurses Association for their help in producing this newsletter.