Healthcare is sooooooo hot right now. Hot as in you have hotheads across the political spectrum screaming out of the idiot box amid the strong possibility that 24 million Americans will lose their health coverage with the repeal and replacement of Obamacare.
Well, you—yes, you, Señor Lung Cookie Generator—can add your voice to the yammer Saturday morning in Fullerton, the site of one of several Healthy California Act Town Halls organized by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU).
These events are aimed at supporting Senate Bill 562—a.k.a. the Healthy California Act—which if passed would guarantee healthcare to all Californians by establishing a Medicare for all-type system. The bill was introduced by senators Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) and Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) in February, with the California CNA/NNU as the primary sponsor and support from the Healthy California Campaign, which represents more than 4 million Californians.
The CNA/NNU believes SB 562, which the state Senate Health Committee is expected to hold its first hearing on in April, is critical in light of the Congressional Budget Office report Monday that found the Republican bill to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act would throw 24 million people off health coverage within the next decade, slash $880 billion from Medicaid and sharply drive up out of pocket costs, especially for older Americans. In California, an estimated 5 million people would lose health coverage due to the repeal of Obamacare.
“We are fighting with everything we have to stop the attacks on our healthcare and hold the line on the standards we’ve won,” says Maribel Nunez, director of California Partnership. “We are urging California legislators to play a leadership role by protecting the gains we’ve made and improving upon them with SB 562, to guarantee healthcare for all.”
Saturday’s town hall begins at 10 a.m. at Hilltop Banquet Center, 1400 Elks View Lane, Fullerton.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.