*Note new time & location below*

The campaign for the Healthy California Act, a coalition comprised of 350 organizations representing over six million Californians, will hold an action in Sacramento on Wednesday, June 28, calling on Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon to let SB 562 move forward in the California Assembly. 

Speaker Rendon announced his decision to put a hold on the bill at 5 p.m. last Friday, a decision that the bill's primary sponsor, the California Nurses Association, described as "a cowardly act, developed in secret without engaging the thousands of Californians who have rallied to enact real health care reform."

"Acting in secret in the interests of the profiteering insurance companies late Friday afternoon abandons all those people already threatened by Congress and the Trump administration," said Deborah Burger, RN and CNA Co-president. 

"The people of California are counting on the legislature to protect them now, not sometime next year, and as polls have shown Californians support this proposal by a wide majority. A solution to this health care emergency could be at hand; Speaker Rendon is standing in opposition," said Burger.

Sacramento - Wednesday, June 28 – 11: 45 a.m*. – 1 p.m.
What: Stop Delay and Pass SB 562 Event in Sacramento
Where: *South Steps of State Capitol (near 11th & N St.) Sacramento*

Today's action follows the lively protest held yesterday outside Rendon's district office in South Gate in which participants shared their difficulties in affording the treatment and medications they and their families need. Nurses and other healthcare providers expressed deep concern for the suffering that will be caused by Speaker Rendon's decision to delay SB 562's consideration in the Assembly.

"I live here in Lakewood and I want to say to Speaker Rendon, please pass this bill now, our patients cannot wait for another year for this bill to be considered," said Elizabeth Castillo, an RN at an acute care hospital in Long Beach.

"You think it's hot enough out here? I think we need to turn up the heat on Speaker Rendon," said CNA Boardmember Sandy Reding, RN. "I'm an operating room nurse in Bakersfield and I've looked into the eyes of the patients on my operating room table who are facing amputation because they didn't get adequate preventive care for their diabetes, because they couldn't afford to seek earlier treatment. We need SB 562 to move forward now."

The Healthy California Act, SB562, passed the full Senate in June after a series of well-attended support rallies and town halls throughout the state, as well as marches and a packed public Senate Health hearing in Sacramento. Advocates continued the grassroots campaign for the bill throughout the weekend, with canvassing in Assembly districts, including Rendon's 63rd district in Los Angeles.

State Senators Ricardo Lara and Toni G. Atkins introduced the bill in February, joined by Senators Benjamin Allen, Cathleen Galgiani, Mike McGuire, Nancy Skinner, and Scott Wiener as co-authors.  Assembly Members Rob Bonta, David Chiu, Laura Friedman, Ash Kalra, Kevin McCarty, Adrin Nazarian, Mark Stone, and Tony Thurmond are also co-authors of the bill.

For more information: www.healthycaliforniaact.org