Keep The Promise: Fulfilling the Vision of Healthcare for Every Californian, the promise of Medicare

2 locations + Zoom option:

Los Angeles
Governor’s office 300 S Spring St
Downtown LA

Oakland
Lake Merritt AMPHITHEATER at
12th and Merritt

SINGLE PAYER & MEDICARE FOR ALL ADVOCATES CALL ON GOVERNOR NEWSOM TO KEEP THE PROMISE WITH RALLIES IN LOS ANGELES AND OAKLAND ON JULY 31st, 2021

July, 30, 2021 marks the 56th anniversary of Medicare and healthcare advocates are using the day after this anniversary to call on California Governor Gavin Newson to keep his promise to bring single payer healthcare to California and for federal representatives to redouble their effort for “Medicare for All”.

To make universal state-sponsored healthcare coverage a reality Gov. Newsom would need to apply for a waiver from the federal government. With former CA Attorney General and single payer proponent Xavier Becerra now serving as Secretary of Health and Human Services the time is right to request the waiver. It’s time for Governor Newsom to live up to his campaign promise, to engage with the federal administration, and to ensure that the recommendations born from his Healthy California for All Commission push forward the virtues of single payer as he campaigned on.

AB1400, the latest in CA state single payer legislation, was introduced earlier this year, but that bill, like the ones before it, was criticized for lacking a mechanism for financial funding. It’s a claim healthcare advocates have refuted over and over again. “The numbers have never really been the issue, we know single payer financing saves money and covers everybody – it has been a lack of political will by our state level officials to figure out the financing specifics and do the job we sent them to Sacramento for,” said Michael Lighty, President of Healthy California Now.

Advocates also hope to put the squeeze on representatives in the Assembly and the Senate in an effort to move AB1400 forward again in January. Many were disappointed in the lack of urgency on the state level generally given an unprecedented pandemic. “Covid-19 put the faults of our employer based healthcare system front and center and people in communities of color, particularly Black, Brown and Immigrant communities suffered as a result with higher contraction rates, hospitalizations and deaths. Particularly in the Latinx community,” said Daniel Lee, Vice Mayor of Culver City.

“In California, and across the country, the devastation caused by COVID-19 exposed and exacerbated the inequities of our for-profit healthcare system, disproportionately impacting low-income people and communities of color. In the wake of the pandemic, it’s even more abundantly clear that the only way to protect everyone’s health is to make health care a human right. We’re proud to join with allies across the state on July 31 in calling on Governor Newsom to fulfill his pledge to build a single-payer healthcare system that guarantees every Californian an equal right to quality health care,” said Sophia Mendoza, Secretary-Treasurer, National Union of Healthcare Workers.

By broadening the movement, to not only include but take leadership from the most affected communities, organizers hope to amplify the pressure on both Governor Gavin Newsom and state representatives.

The Keep The Promise event has been endorsed by the United Teachers of Los Angeles, James Lawson Institute, Pilipino Workers’ Center, Inland Equity Partnership, Physicians for a National Health Program California, Progressive Democrats of America, NUHW, Progressive Asian Network for Action, Healthy California Now, California Alliance for Retired Americans, Sunrise Movement Los Angeles, Move to Amend, Democratic Socialists of Los Angeles, Democrats of Pasadena Foothills, Momtivist, Feminists in Action, California ONECARE, HEAL California, Health Care for All-California, and others.

The events will take place on July 31st at 2:00pm.