The highly popular “Medicare for All” California Bill, SB562, passed earlier this month in the California Senate, was abruptly shelved and removed from debate this week by the Democratic Speaker of the California Assembly, Anthony Rendon, a move that shocked and angered its many supporters.
Was it the Trump forces that moved against the progressive movement that defines health care as a human right and not a privilege? NO!
Was it the Paul Ryan right-wing Republicans who moved to kill the bill? NO!
It was, in fact, the Democratic Party in California. While claiming to be part of the “resistance,” Democratic Party leaders themselves dealt the decisive blow to the landmark bill that is supported by a significant majority of the people of California.
California Nurses Association condemns Rendon
The California Nurses Association, a major sponsor of SB562, slammed Rendon for his decision to shelve the bill, calling the move “a cowardly act.”
“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,” said Deborah Burger, co-president of the CNA. “A solution to this healthcare emergency could be at hand; Speaker Rendon is standing in opposition.”
In response to the abrupt shelving of the bill, people across the State flooded Rendon’s office with phone calls, and expressed their anger on Twitter:
“This morning, Elizabeth Warren said that Democrats should campaign for Single Payer. They do! And then when it’s alive, THEY KILL IT.”
“California is the 6th biggest economy on the damn planet. If the other nations of that level can do it, why, tell me, is it so “impractical” for California!”
Rendon dismissed his action by accusing the sponsors and supporters of not outlining where the funds to support the plan would come from, ignoring the skyrocketing costs of healthcare in California. As if he were fronting for the big multibillion-dollar insurance and pharmaceutical giants, whose profits are soaring into billions of dollars, Rendon shut the door on public democratic debate on an issue that has emerged as number one on peoples’ minds.
When it comes to vast outlays in funds, we never hear of any debate about the trillions of dollars in wasted defense spending, or the huge tax breaks for the super-rich.
Studies have shown how single payer in fact drastically lowers the costs of healthcare, even in a capitalist economy.
Single payer way overdue
The limitations of Obamacare are the result of the deal made with insurance companies ensuring that their profits would be enhanced rather than curtailed under the new bill. Single payer advocates were not allowed to be at the table in the development of the Affordable Care Act.
The California single payer bill, rather than coming too soon as Rendon asserts, is in fact is way overdue as more and more cuts in benefits leave so many untreated and denied access.
Progressives should look carefully at this move by the Democrats in California.
In words only, they are talking resistance and progressive change. But this is just talk. This sabotage by the Democrats of a progressive measure shows that when the struggle for things like universal health care occurs among the people, the Democrats stand in loyalty, just like the Republicans, with the interests of the billionaire class.
The struggle ahead, to win real change, requires fighting the whole system… not just the obvious right-wingers … but the fake “resisters” in the Democratic Party as well.
