The following is a press release issued by the organizers of the Mendocino County SpeakOut Car Rally:
Local health care advocates working with the California Nurses Association hosted a local SpeakOut car rally Saturday and shared their personal stories to highlight the pain and suffering caused by our profit-driven, fragmented and broken healthcare system, urging state legislators to pass AB 1400, the California Guaranteed Health Care for All (CalCare) Act, similar to Medicare for All on the national level.
Activists and nurses hosted SpeakOut car rallies in 18 cities across the state as part of the nurses’ statewide Day of Action, highlighting the need for universal health care during the COVID-19 healthcare crisis. Before the pandemic, 2.7 million Californians lacked health insurance.
CalCare would guarantee health care as a human right by providing comprehensive, high quality health care to all Californians. The California Nurses Association has been leading the fight for guaranteed health care for decades and is proud to be the sponsor of AB 1400, a new single-payer bill introduced into the state legislature in February 2021. Our own District 2 State Senator, Mike McGuire, is a Principal Co-Author of this bill.
The incomparable Raging Grannies opened the event with a song memorializing Joe Louis Wildman. Their song about CalCare was masterfully arranged. Mayor Orozco eloquently framed the issues and called for our support. Councilperson Mari Rodin spoke of her own precipitous health care expenses. And our special guest, Sharon Govern, a former health care professional, summed up just how dreadfully broken is our current healthcare system. Senator Mike McGuire joined us from Sacramento by Zoom, and explained how it will be paid for by Medicare, Medi-Cal and ACA waivers, which when passed into law in California, will allow the State to divert those funding streams into the statewide CalCare program. And a survivor of local activist, Joe Louis, Wildman, whom we all mourn, said that Joe might be alive today if he was covered under CalCare because of the financial obstacles that kept him away from the doctor.
“It is high time the USA joined the other first world nations in caring for our citizens rather than punishing the poor. Universal quality healthcare will benefit everyone, like herd immunity. It will benefit businesses, which won’t have to provide employee health care benefits or pay workers comp anymore. It will save money by cutting out insurance profit motives and advertising, while eliminating premiums, deductibles, and co-pays. And most of all, countless lives could have been saved in the pandemic if everyone was covered freely,” said event organizer, Registered Nurse, Robin Sunbeam. She added, “California can lead the nation in serving the People with Health Care Justice.”
According to CNA president Zenei Triunfo-Cortez, “as registered nurses, we witness on a daily basis how our current healthcare system fails our patients, and we see firsthand the needless illness, death, and financial ruin experienced by our community members. California has the opportunity and ability to guarantee that all residents of our state get the care that they need, when they need it. The nurses will always advocate and take action to protect our patients and that is why we are so committed to the passage of CalCare.”
