Statewide Vigils for Healthcare: (AB 8) Vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger

Last Tuesday, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said that we have the opportunity to make the most significant progress on healthcare reform in the last hundred years. Then on Friday he vetoed AB 8 -- landmark legislation that would have reformed California’s broken healthcare system.

The Governor’s veto came at the end of the day on Friday October 12, 2007 when most people were focusing on their weekend. But if he thought we wouldn't notice, he was wrong.

So this week, lobby groups will be holding 48-hour, around-the-clock vigils outside of the Governor's offices across the state. The vigils will commemorate friends and family members who have been hurt by unaffordable healthcare in California and help us build even more public support for real reform.

Our healthcare vigils begin at noon on Wednesday in Sacramento, San Francisco, Fresno, Riverside, Los Angeles, and San Diego and will continue in many places through noon on Friday.

Join us to demand something better than the fake "reform" of requiring people to buy insurance they can't afford or that won't cover the care they need.

Come to our vigil and honor a friend or loved one hurt by our broken system and stand up for REAL reform.

Tell the Governor to put meaningful reform back on the table. Join us as we stand together and make your voices be heard.

Statewide Vigils:

San Diego
Wednesday, 10/17, 12:00pm - 8:00pm
1350 Front Street, San Diego

Los Angeles
Wednesday, 10/17, 12:00pm - Fri., 10/19, 12:00pm
300 South Spring Street, Los Angeles

Riverside
Wednesday, 10/17, 12:00pm - 9:00pm
3737 Main Street, Riverside

Fresno
Wednesday, 10/17, 12:00pm – 8:00pm
Thursday, 10/18, 12:00pm – 8:00pm
2550 Mariposa Mall, Fresno

San Francisco
Wednesday, 10/17, 12:00pm - Fri., 10/19, 12:00pm
Polk & McAllister, Civic Center Plaza, San Francisco

Sacramento
Wednesday, 10/17, 12:00pm - Fri., 10/19, 12:00pm
State Capitol Building, 11th & L side, Sacramento

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has said that he wants to reform healthcare, but his plan would require you to buy health insurance, whether or not you can afford it and whether or not it provides any real coverage. Well, it’s not real healthcare unless you can afford to use it.

According to a recent U.S. Census Bureau report, approximately 6.7 million Californians – more than ever before – are uninsured. Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, said the exercise of putting a bill on the governor's desk that faces certain veto can serve as a foundation for debate.

Schwarzenegger said he would reject AB8, by Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, because it puts too great a financial burden on employers and does not address the needs of 2.8 million of California's estimated 6.8 million uninsured residents.

"We have brought to him something that we said we would do and we did," Perata said. "We will put it on his desk and if he vetoes it and if he chooses to bring us back into special session, we will go.

"This is something that we are not giving up on. We want health care reform."

"We took a lot of ideas from the governor," the Assembly speaker said. "This is a compromise. This is our best attempt at a compromise."

The measure seeks to extend health care insurance to the state's working poor - about 4 million people - who lack coverage. Schwarzenegger wants to provide coverage to all 6.8 million uninsured.

Like a plan proposed by Schwarzenegger earlier this year, AB8 would require all but the smallest employers to provide insurance to their workers or pay into a state pool for providing coverage. Also like the governor's proposal, the Democratic plan would also split the costs between employers and workers - although Núñez's plan would require employers to pay as much as 7.5 percent of payroll while Schwarzenegger would mandate about 4 percent.

Both the governor and the Democrats also agree that there needs to be a big expansion of existing state health care programs to better serve the poor and the unemployed.

The big political problem both plans face is opposition from powerful interest groups that might lose in the overhaul.

More information about the Governor’s health care proposal can be found at: www.FixOurHealthCare.com

The Health Care Security and Cost Reduction Act can be found at:
Health Care Act Health Care Act

Act Now. Go to www.ItsOurHealthcare.org
Its Our HealthCare.org ItsOurHealthcare