A message from Santa Clara County Single Payer Health Care Coalition via Healthy California Now Coalition
Please sign the petition asking Governor Gavin Newsom to Lead on Medicare for All!
We want to gather as many signatures as possible by January 20, 2021.
As a Californian who believes that healthcare should be guaranteed as a human right, I’m calling on Governor Newsom to fulfill his promise to fight for single-payer healthcare in California. He can do this by requesting waivers for Medicare along with other essential funding from the Biden administration on Inauguration Day, January 20th, 2021!
A single-payer healthcare system would mean comprehensive healthcare for all Californians including but not limited to: Medical, Dental, Vision, Hearing, Reproductive Health, Prescription Drugs, Mental Health, and Long-term Care.
It would also mean Californians wouldn’t need to worry about the cost of care: NO Co-pays, Fees, Denial of Coverage, Deductibles, “Out-of-Network,” NOR Bills!
The U.S. is alone among wealthy countries in not providing healthcare to every person as a human right. That we pay twice as much for a system that profits from denying care is shocking. This is a labor issue: healthcare costs increase every year for workers while wages remain stagnant. This is a social justice issue: people of color, women, LGBTQ people, immigrants, and disabled people are disproportionately uninsured and unable to receive the care they need. This is an economic issue: taxpayers and businesses waste billions of dollars annually to subsidize pharmaceutical and insurance corporations. These companies are now making record profits during a deadly pandemic at our expense. It’s time to put people over profits.
In the era of COVID-19, single-payer has taken on a new urgency. COVID has revealed the fundamental injustice of a system that restricts access based on whether you can afford it. In California, the disparities are stark, with racial minorities contracting COVID at startlingly higher rates than whites. Single-payer is key to addressing this profound inequality. Meanwhile, the pandemic has left millions unemployed and uninsured, the vast majority have been working class. Barriers to care discourage people from getting needed COVID treatment, and jeopardize everyone’s health.
Governor Newsom led the fight for universal healthcare in San Francisco, made single-payer a pillar of his campaign, and on his first day in office made the same request of Trump that we’re asking him to make of the Biden Administration. In addition, the person to grant the necessary waivers — the incoming Secretary of Health and Human Services — will likely be nominee Xavier Becerra, whom Governor Newsom appointed as Attorney General, and who is also an advocate for single-payer. So now there is an enormous opportunity for Governor Newsom to lead the nation and provide every Californian with high-quality, single-payer healthcare.
I understand the power of the healthcare industry and the millions they will spend trying to defeat our efforts. But we’re stronger together.
Please take action. Click here: Governor Newsom — Lead on Medicare for All!
Thank you!