This is really IMPORTANT and could not be more timely, with SB 840 (single payer) passing the Senate and hitting the Assembly health committee (hello, Audra Strickland), the Nunez-Peralta bill combining, and Michael Moore's "SICKO" opening Friday nationwide, locally at the Westlake Twin, Camarillo Roxy, and Ventura Century Downtown.

People of Ventura County, wake up! Neither Your Hub nor the Star have not used our press releases or inserted this event on their calendars. Regal Theaters refused to show "Sicko" and pulled it from their schedule in Simi and other cities. Come to this event to learn about our broken healthcare system and how to fix it. You won't get this information from other sources until a majority of us demand it.

Dennert got spammed....

Okay, the healthcare event in Thousand Oaks is going to be really interesting, educational, and informative. Healthcare is such an important issue and only by providing the community with the education they lack will we be able to make a change.

I will be there and I believe that the Young Progressive Democrats Corresponding Secretary (and Executive Vice President of Conejo Valley Dems) Shelly Austin is supposed to be there.

It will be a great event and ---hopefully--- there will be coffee....YOUNG DEMOCRATS DON'T GET UP BEFORE 12:00NOON!

Don't forget to come to Dinner and a Movie with the Young Dems that night! Email me for more info.

This is our last best chance to educate people about single-payer health care. Thanks to Michael Moore for his work in spotlighting the sad state of USA health care. Over 2 million MORE people lost their health insurance last year. Now it is almost 45M without.

California [and all America] will have to choose if we want 25% of every health care dollar go to the for-profit insurance companies because capitalism is the number one religion here. Do we care more about everyone having access to health care or about stockholders making big profits? We must choose who we are.

Should the head of United Health [AARP's insurance co] have been offered a 1.3 BILLION retirement package? Did you know that the local VC Wellpoint is laying off middle managers and hiring 20 somethings for a lower salary? Is that really what we want?

Single-payer health care systems are NOT SOCIALIZED MEDICINE. The govt. would not own the hospitals or hire the doctors.

The Govenor is toying with the words TAX and FEE. He admits that we are paying a HIDDEN TAX for those without health insurance.

Single-payer will create a state agency to administer all of the health-care funds from employees, employers, federal and state programs, etc. Their overhead will be similar to the Medicare system - less than 3 per-cent. I'm on Medicare and it is great.

Basically, this is a fight between the insurance companies and the people. The ins. companies have more money than we do but Americans always finally swing to what is fair and right. Will people continually be stressed out about their jobs with health insurance and what they will do if they lose it? 1/2 of all bankruptcies are health care related.

go to www.healthcareforall.org and read the Lewin report about single-payer health care for California.

SB840 was veteod by the Gov. last year and he says that he will veto it again. Call Audra Strickland and Tom McClintock and tell them you care about your friends and neighbors who don't have health care and it is time that we make sure that everyone can access health care.

Wasn't Jesus about healing everyone?

Is it just American hubris and pride that causes us to not admit that other nations do healthcare better?

Would this program cover everyone including undocumented workers? People on vacation?

How long would someone need to be here until this entitlement kicks in?

Here are some different views on the subject.

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.aspPage=/Culture/archive/200706/CUL20070621b.html

http://www.larryelder.com/economics/healthcare.htm

We cover undocumented families now. The Gov. calls it a hidden tax.
They just go to the emergency room now. No one wants sick children and their parents spreading their germs around.

The CA SB840 plan includes a card, just like other health cards and can be used anywhere, just like any other card.

Do a google search for single-payer health care and read. read about SB840 -
Doctors for single-payer, etc.

We have to decide as a nation if we care more about insurance companies making a profit or everyone having health insurance. We spend twice as much per person on health care as any other nation.

Come to the TO library on Saturday at 10 AM if you want to learn about single-payer.

I do say that is a powerful talking point Kate but what about non-emergency services?

For example:
1. Vision and dental.

Do illegal aliens frequently show up in emergency rooms for new eye glasses? Would your plan cover it? I am not saying that we should take glasses away from poor people, but at what cost? Does a person need to work to qualify? What about a retired person from Canada. Can they move here and get the benefits?

Kate, Heather and Penny:

Just out of curiosity, Have any of you read the whole bill?

I noticed none of you talked about how we pay for this brand new bureaucracy. Anyone want to give us a price tag and who is going to pay for it?

Sen. Khuel has a companion financing bill SB1014 - its online.

there will be many sources - all the federal, state, employer, employee, etc. monies now minus the 25% we pay to insurance companies will give us more than we have now.

Who would Jesus heal?

I believe Jesus might heal anyone that comes to him with an open heart and faith.

Does that mean you plan on giving out health cards to the whole world? Jesus would heal the people of the world. By your logic you have made a mockery of your program because it would not heal these people. Or offer them low cost medicines.

Or would it?

How many months a year would a migrant worker need to be here or work here to qualify for them and their families?

What is with the primary concern about immigrant's qualifications for single-payer healthcare?

The money being raked off the top of the pile by insurance companies - entities that provide no real service and are often the problem when it comes to getting required treatment - is a much bigger racket than even several hundred thousand of immigrants getting healthcare cards. At least these people mostly work and pay taxes. Their children attend the same schools as other children - their health is important to everyone's health.

I ask again - what with the over-concern?

Thanks for answering my questions. Wait, you didn't, did you?

Are you really going to charge me taxes to insure retired citizens that move here? Optional procedures or optional coverage for the unemployed by choice? Benefits without regards to legal status without a length of residency requirement?

How about you build the hospitals at airports and hand out cards as people get off of planes?

Could i really work part-time seasonally and still be covered?

Would Rudolph the red nosed reindeer be covered? Because as far as I can tell he only works one day a year. Even if he has unique talents playing reindeer games and expecting universal California taxpayer provided for health care is plain lazy.

Were you at the Health Care for All Conf. in TO Saturday morning?
I don't know the folks who write into this list.

Andrew McGuire, head of the SB840 campaign, answered most of the questions that have been asked on this post.

Californians will choose who they care about, insurance company profits or our neighbors health care.

Will new businesses move to California if we have universal health care? It will mean higher profits and better conditions for their employees. Just think of the jobs in Michigan if US car makers didn't have to negotiate health care and add it onto every car we want to buy. I think it is $8,000.

Let’s look at some of the other things that government is “providing� for us.

Education: Our children are falling further and further behind and all we here is “MORE TAXES, MORE BONDS, MORE MONEY.�

State infrastructure: Our roads, highways, bridges, and tunnels are in desperate need of expansion and repair and all we hear is “MORE TAXES, MORE BONDS, MORE MONEY.�

Single- Payer health care may sound great now, but I am sure that if we adopt it, it will soon become another state bureaucracy giving lousy service and demanding “MORE TAXES, MORE BONDS, MORE MONEY.�

What does Jimmy mean by our children? Many students take advantage of the many opportunities that our local schools offer and excel in ways previous generations have never had the chance. Unless they were really rich.

Please read SB 840 - it will answer so many questions.

SICKO lays out the problems with USA healthcare and highlights what a few other countries have done to care for their citizens.

Always follow the money. $14 million to those who gathered around Pres. Bush to sign Medicare PartD drug card. United Health care CEO with a $1.1 Billion severence package [plus $500 million a year]
AARP who sells United Health's policies and reaps the royalties.

Do we want insurance companies blocking health care change?
It is our choice. The Gov. said he would veto any plan that didn't include for profit insurance companies.

Let him know that you care about all people in the state and they should have health care up front. [they get it anyway in the emergency rooms]