GREAT L.A. HEALTH CARE RALLY
A BIG SUCCESS!
On a beautiful, summer afternoon, Saturday, August 11, 2007, nearly 3,000 Californians came together at the Great L.A. Health Care Rally to celebrate the year-long, 365-City campaign to demand passage of single-payer, not-for-profit, universal health insurance legislation, SB 840 (Kuehl).
The Great L.A. Health Care Rally became a symbol for the entire year of hard work by Health Care for All-California and others who waged the audacious OneCareNow Campaign in support of single-payer health care. The Campaign began in Morro Bay last August 12, 2006, and continued with events-marches, demonstrations, rallies, screenings, speakers-staged each day in a different city, sponsored by organizations large and small who have joined a coalition to help in the fight for health care for all.
On the final day of the Campaign at the Great L.A. Health Care Rally, Directors from 25 HCA Chapters, leaders from the State Strategy Group for SB 840, labor, service and religious organizations from all over the state were thrilled with the energy in the air. Some five TV stations, five radio outlets and print media came too, and reported on the historic event.
CSEA's 10 busloads of chanting, single payer supporters marched onto the City Hall South Lawn to get things started. Rally co-chairs, George Savage from HCA-L.A., Jose Morales from CSEA, and Jim Hilfenhaus from Laborer's Local 300, announced the pre-Rally entertainment and then the John Burroughs Vocal Ensemble and Agina Alvarez's Star Spangled Banner inspired the crowd, and away we went.
L.A. City Council President, Eric Garcetti, kicked off a list of speakers that included Maria Elena Durazo (Los Angeles County Federation of Labor), Bree Johnston from California Physicians' Alliance, Dolores Huerta (Co-founder, United Farm Workers), and Deborah Berger from California Nurses Association. Our own legislative leader, Senator Sheila Kuehl, kept up the intensity, as did Lt. Governor Garamendi and surprise guest, Congressman and Presidential Candidate Dennis Kucinich.
Lily Tomlin appeared as "Ernestine the Operator" who now works at Care Control Insurance Corporation denying care to all who call. The crowd roared with laughter each time Ernestine denied health benefits: "Blindness is not covered. It's a pre-exising condition. You should have read the fine print!" Then, from the "SiCKO" premiere tour, Colette Washington, from the California Nurses Association performed her rousing song, "Healthcare Justice," backed by a huge choir of nurses.
Three health insurance victims to whom the Rally was dedicated, Dawnelle Keyes, Marcy Garber, and Cynthia Toussaint, told their moving stories and demanded that all of us do what we can so that others do not go through the pain they endured. The crowd expressed their heartfelt thanks for their inspiration.
The State Strategy Group leaders briefly introduced the goals for the next coming year of the 365 OneCareNow Campaign for SB 840 (see below), and Folkloriate's Nanda Zipp, Mario Esquivel, Nick Terry and Gary Fukashima brought us home with music.
What a day! What a Rally! What a Campaign!
Next year promises to be even bigger for the OneCareNow Campaign. The State Strategy group has chosen a "365 Theme" to emphasize that healthcare injustice is a year-round problem that causes suffering and death every day.
So our 365 OneCareNow Campaign goals for the next year are to secure written commitments supporting single-payer health insurance in the form of:
-365 City Council Resolutions
-365 School Board Resolutions
-365 service club endorsements
-3650 church endorsements
-3650 business endorsements
-365 Resolutions of support from County Boards of Supervisors, Health Departments, Police and Fire Departments, and other public agencies
In addition, the OneCareNow Campaign will conduct daily educational events, rallies, fund raisers and political actions that will build our Campaign into an even larger movement that the Legislature and Governor cannot ignore. We will demand that they enact SB 840 NOW!
class="style7">The Members of the OneCareNow Campaign State Strategy Group for Single Payer Healthcare are:
- League of Women Voters of California
- California School Employees Association
- California Nurses Association
- California Physicians' Alliance
- California Alliance for Retired Americans
- California Teachers Association
- Consumer Federation of California
- California Council of Churches
- California Federation of Teachers
- California Retired Teachers Association
- American Medical Student Association-UCSF Chapter
- Wellstone Democractic Renewal Club
- California Faculty Association
- Health Care for All-California
Together, these groups will work tirelessly until single-payer, universal health care is the law in California. And we will win!
