Doubt Dries up Fast
If there had been any lingering doubt about Club support, it ended, approximately, when Ms. Podolsky, the first speaker, said “Good evening.” Supporters routinely claim that the strongest selling point for this kind of bill is old-fashioned universality. They say that every single person needs healthcare insurance. They say 85 percent of Californians are working people who simply can’t afford the annually soaring price structure devised by the “corporate villains,” insurance and pharmaceutical companies. Separately, Ms. Podolsky argued, that the cost of obtaining health insurance, or of paying for medicines once ill, are so prohibitive that class no longer determines who can afford the rates and who can’t. “My point,” she said, “is that this is a crisis of the poor, the working poor, the middle class and the affluent. One in five Californians is without health insurance. Half of bankruptcies stem from an inability to meet medical bills.”
Will California Take the Lead?
“California will be a guiding light for the nation,” declared Mr. Savage of the advocacy group Health Care for All Americans and the website onecarenow.org. He was the most enthusiastic of the speakers and seemed to be in charge of developing spirit at this political pep rally. No need to worry about who is going to pay for the free healthcare insurance of every California, he told his listeners. “The system is awash in money,” he said. “We can cover everybody easily. All we have to do is get the people (grassroots supporters)into the streets.” Mr. Savage plans to do his part by staging one pro-S.B. 840 event a day each day for the next year in 365 California communities, starting with Los Osos, the 365th largest town.
Ms. Podolsky said that one adaptation that will help government pay for universal healthcare is that under the Kuehl bill administrative costs would be drastically reduced, from 30 percent to about 5 percent.
Not Everyone Agrees
For all of the double-wide statistics, overwhelming enthusiasm of the water-carriers when this subject comes up and the unquestioned support of the Democratic Party, single-payer health insurance has fallen on its haircut every time. Ms. Podolsky, the politician in the group, warned the crowd that not all Democrats in Sacramento are putting their shoulders behind S.B. 840, at least yet. ”What you will have to do,” she told the activist audience, “is to target specific legislators.” For advocates, a huge stake in the campaign — possibly its ultimate success — may lie in the outcome of the gubernatorial race in November. Unfurling her presentation with her ace stroke, Ms. Podolsky said that “I have very good news for you. The Democratic candidate for governor (Phil Angelides) said that he would sign this bill. One of the most important things we can do in the coming months is to change the occupant of the governor’s office.”
Postscript
Appealing to the party loyalty of his audience, Mr. Newlin, the nurses’ organizer, said that “it is a Democratic issue to talk about single-payer insurance. If Angelides makes this the centerpiece of his campaign, he wins.”