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Oxnard
Ventura County Star
Healthcare campaign stops in Oxnard
By Michelle L. Klampe
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
A 365-day campaign to build support for universal healthcare made its final stop in Ventura County on Monday at an Oxnard shopping center.
More than two dozen Ventura County volunteers blanketed Shopping at the Rose, waving banners, passing out fliers and seeking signatures on petitions from shoppers for two hours Monday afternoon on behalf of the OneCareNow campaign.
Their goal was to drum up support for universal healthcare and SB 840, the bill written by state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, that would create a universal, single-payer system and eliminate the role of for-profit health insurance companies.
In a single-payer system, the healthcare costs of large groups of people, such as all state residents, are paid by one source.
"I believe everyone should have health insurance," said volunteer Jeanne Foster of El Rio. Foster works for the California School Employees Association, which represents more than 2,200 school employees including instructional assistants and food service workers.
"Probably 40 percent of them don't get health benefits from their employers," Foster said.
OneCareNow is a project of Health Care For All-California, a statewide nonprofit organization supporting universal healthcare for Californians as the solution to the state's failing healthcare system.
The 365-day campaign began Aug. 12, 2006, in Morro Bay, and continued with events in a new California city each day since. The city-by-city events were organized smallest to largest, starting with the city that ranks 365th in size and working toward Los Angeles, where the campaign concludes Aug. 11, as the year progresses.
Ventura County's cities have hosted a number of OneCareNow events over the past year, including a forum last month in Thousand Oaks, a Christmas Day event in Moorpark and some banner-waving at freeway overpasses.
"Some of our events have just been visibility events," said Penny Strowger of Thousand Oaks, the director of Ventura County's Health Care for All chapter.
"That's what we've been doing, just starting that first level of awareness. It's been a gradual process."
The events across the state have produced a groundswell of support for universal healthcare, said Kuehl, whose bill is still moving through the Legislature but faces almost-certain veto by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has proposed his own series of healthcare reforms.
"Taking this on the road ... has built enormous support for 840. It lets people know what the bill does and what it doesn't do," Kuehl said. "I think there's plenty of momentum to carry the bill through to next year and even to the next governor."
"It's pretty clear any kind of bill the governor (Schwarzenegger) is going to sign is not going to be single-payer."
Andrew McGuire, executive director for Health Care For All, said the 365-day campaign's success can be seen in the 40,000 signatures volunteers have collected, the growing interest in the city events and its support by numerous statewide organizations such as the California School Employees Association.
"I'm convinced people do have a better sense of single-payer healthcare now," McGuire said. "I think it's been immeasurably successful."
Plans are already in the works to launch a new campaign next year, McGuire said. The details will be presented at the Los Angeles rally.
The interest in the OneCareNow campaign and the Healthcare for All effort also have been boosted in recent weeks by the opening of Michael Moore's film "Sicko," McGuire said.
The film, which opened last month, examines the failings of the U.S. healthcare system and the successes of foreign, government-run healthcare programs.
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