California Nurses Use Obama's Words Against Schwarzenegger Plan

This morning The Nation brings us some interesting news (via Yahoo). Evidently while U.S. Senator Barack Obama is focusing his attentions on other states, his voice is ringing out across California thanks to an ad campaign run by the California Nurses Association (CNA). The ads attack the health care reform plan backed by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Democratic Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, and a group of major insurance corporations.

The radio ads being aired by CNA announce that, "The nurses of California agree with Senator Barack Obama: the government shouldn't punish people who can't afford health insurance."

Then an audio clip from Obama is heard. "I know that there have been some folks who said that it's not possible to provide universal health care coverage unless there's a mandate," says the senator. "Their essential argument is the only way to get everybody covered is if the government forces you to buy health insurance. If you don't buy it, then you'll be penalized in some way. And the reason people don't have health insurance is because they can't afford it."

You may read a transcript of the ad or listen to/download it in MP3 format from the CNA Online Press Release.

The CNA has not gone easy on Senator Obama's plan in the past. Last year the organization's then president, Deborah Berger, RN, criticized it for failing to address pricing practices in the health care industry. She said that those practices, "put so many American families at financial and health risk."

Then there is Iowa. During the recent caucuses the CNA ran an ad aimed at Senator Obama which said: "It's not good enough just to be better than the Republicans on this."

The current ad campaign has potential to be a very powerful one. Senator Obama's voice and face have become ubiquitous, especially after his victory in the Iowa caucuses. The CNA, as we wrote about here, was the group behind the last month's powerful "if he were anyone else, he'd be dead by now," ad campaign that used U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney's recent medical history as it's basis.

It will be interesting to see what direction things take in response, especially between now and the California presidential primary on February 5.

SOURCE: " Putting Obama to Work for Health-Care Reform" 01/11/08
SOURCE: "Nurses Unveil New Advertising Campaign Against Schwarzenegger-Nunez “Individual Mandate” Plan" 01/10/08
photo courtesy of Transplanted Mountaineer, used under this Creative Commons license

California Nurse Say's "Pull The Plug"

Donna Gerber is displeased by the state of affairs in Sacramento, and when the Director of Government Relations for the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee is displeased she is not shy about it. Today she cut loose, using the California Progress Report, a progressive website, as her pulpit to let the powers that be know exactly what she thinks of current attempts at health care reform.

Comparing the rush to pass some form of health care legislation during this state legislative session with the rush to deregulate energy in the 1990's, she warns of hasty legislation with unforeseen consequences with the health care equivalent of rolling blackouts.

With the Assembly posed to vote Monday on the latest iteration of a sweeping bill, it is time to pull the plug. Let's step back, take action instead on an immediate health crisis and come back next year to enact a better, more comprehensive health reform plan that will actually solve our healthcare morass.

Thousands of California children now face the cutoff of coverage due to the President’s veto of the children's health program. Further, the governor is expected to propose emergency across the board budget cuts up to 10 percent as a result of the worsening budget deficit. We should all focus on guaranteeing continued coverage for children and protecting current programs rather than rushing through a bad plan that could just exacerbate the crisis for California families and the state.

AB1X, the health care reform bill she refers to, "will not be universal, it will not be affordable, it will not be of high quality, and bare bone plans with high out of pocket costs will be forced upon Californians and employers who will have no control over the price. This hardly seems to match up with what the pollsters say the people of California want." She drives her point home with facts, one after the other in rapid succession.

From the fact that wage garnishments will be enacted in some cases to ensure coverage to the simple fault that it does not guarantee affordable care to all Californians, the points she raises provoke and disturb. When compared to the stated goal of universal health care her list is an amazing array of loopholes, gaps, and counterintuitive elements; the lack of any limit on premiums or co-pays alone should raise eyebrows at the very least.

SOURCE: "Time to Pull the Plug on the Flawed California Health Care Deal" 12/17/07
photo courtesy of redking remixed and used under this Creative Commons license