Sacramento rally pushes for single-payer, universal health care

By Kathy Robertson
Sacramento Business Journal, Feb. 12, 2013

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — “Everybody in, nobody out” was the chant by a couple hundred people gathered at the Capitol at noon on Monday to rally for a single-payer, universal health care system in California.

Some have unsuccessfully rallied in Sacramento for eight years, only to see the initiative flounder before lawmakers or be vetoed. In the meantime, focus has turned to President Barack Obama’s federal health care overhaul.

This is the first time supporters do not have an author for a universal health care bill, but that could have change because supporters canvassed the Capitol after the rally, searching for an author.

“Enough is enough,” Kathy Kennedy, a registered nurse in the neonatal intensive care unit at Kaiser’s Roseville hospital, said from a podium on the Capitol steps. “We support the ACA’s expansion of Medi-Cal and restraining the abuses by insurance companies, but we have a lot of Californians still without health care — and that is not right.”

Kennedy also serves on the board of directors for the California Nurses Association, a longtime supporter of universal health care and one of the rally organizers.

The Affordable Care Act does not cover undocumented immigrants, estimated at about 2 million in California.

Kathy Robertson is senior staff writer at the Sacramento Business Journal.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/blog/kathy-robertson/2013/02/rally-pushes-for-single-payer-health.html