"This event is an opportunity to meet others in our community who care about health care and want to do more than just resist the disastrous changes being put forward at the federal level"

The campaign for the Healthy California Act is inviting area residents to a community town hall meeting on Saturday, July 22, in Oakland to learn about SB 562, a bill that would guarantee health care to all Californians by establishing a Medicare-for-all type system.

The town hall will feature presentations by Eric Leenson and Mehul Thakker, Business Alliance for a Healthy California, Jodi Reid, Executive Director of CARA/California Alliance of Retired Americans, Martha Kuhl, RN, Children's Hospital Oakland and California Nurses Association/National Nurses United, Henry Abrons, MD, MPH, Physicians for a National Health Program and a representative from the office of Assemblymember Thurmon.

What: Town Hall Meeting on SB 562, the Healthy California Act
When: Saturday, July 22nd 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Where: Rockridge Library, 5366 College Ave. Oakland, Ca. 

"Many seniors and people with disabilities are confused about how SB 562 - the Healthy CA Act would impact their cherished health care programs, Medicare and Medicaid," said Jodi Reid, Executive Director of CARA/California Alliance for Retired Americans. "At the town hall we'll answer these questions and describe how SB 562 will improve healthcare for seniors and people with disabilities by providing enhanced benefits at less cost."

"It is a very under-appreciated fact that SB 562, as proposed, is very friendly to small business and entrepreneurs. I invite business proprietors to join us at the Rockridge Town Hall to learn how the Healthy California Act will benefit them and their employees," said Eric Leenson, Co-director of Business Alliance for a Healthy California.

"This event is an opportunity to meet others in our community who care about health care and want to do more than just resist the disastrous changes being put forward at the federal level," said Martha Kuhl, an RN at Children's Hospital in Oakland. "As a nurse who takes care of very sick children, I see firsthand the anguish in parent's faces when they can not get their children the care they need. As nurses, we don’t care for people based on their ability to pay, their gender, their race, or where they live. All people have the right to a single standard of quality care. That is why I support SB 562."

The Healthy California Act, SB 562 passed the full Senate last month and was set for consideration in the Assembly in late June when Speaker Anthony Rendon abruptly refused to let it out of the Rules Committee. Since then supporters have continued organizing grassroots support for the bill, conducting door-to-door canvassing in various Assembly districts and holding several lively protests at the state capitol building in Sacramento. 

The California Nurses Association sponsored a recent study by expert economists at University of Massachusetts Amherst on how to pay for SB 562—revealing that enacting the bill would save Californians $37 billion off our current cost for healthcare.

A survey released in May by the Public Policy Institute of California found that 75 percent of California Democrats and 64 percent of independent voters support single-payer. The survey aso found that 56 percent of likely voters favor such a plan. Despite this, Speaker Rendon and Assembly Democrats, with their two-thirds, 55-25 super majority, have put forth no proposals to implement the California Democratic Party's single-payer plank or to protect the nearly six million Californians whose healthcare is threatened by executive orders and GOP proposals. This includes 4.4 million who gained coverage under Medi-Cal expansion and 1.4 million receiving coverage though the Covered California exchange.

For more information on the Healthy California Act SB 562: www.healthycaliforniaact.org