Nunez (CA-Dem) thinks those that want Single Payer, Universal Health Care are RADICALS

[fed-up]

how dare the newspapers claim that Nunez represents the "Democrats" stance on health care
He does not represent this RADICAL
His LTE is full of LIES-did he just sweep Kuehl's bill off the table completely? (media has been doing that all along anyway)
There is the 1st main health care bill (SB 840-Kuehl) that has passed the house (last year passed house and Senate, Arnold vetoed it)
http://www.onecarenow.org/index.html


http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/commentary/la-oe-nunez28aug28,0,3890015.story?coll=la-sunday-commentary

Healthcare reform -- now

Fabian Nuñez: We can't let radicals stop my sensible plan for helping desperate Californians.
By Fabian Nuñez
August 28, 2007
In the next 15 to 18 days before the Legislature adjourns, the narrow window of opportunity we have to achieve healthcare reform in California -- reform that expands access for those who don't have health coverage and keeps costs down for those who do -- will start to close. If history is a guide, we can expect an anything-goes campaign in the next few weeks to delay, derail and demonize healthcare reform. We need to focus on some basic truths to keep that campaign from succeeding.

First, for nearly 10 months now, the reform proposals I put forward with Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata have been vetted in the legislative process, fiscally analyzed by academics and scrutinized by the media. Yet you can count on opponents saying, "We're moving too fast; let's slow down." Practically speaking, what they are really trying to do is kill any reform -- delay means death to controversial big-issue legislation. Given more time, the forces against healthcare reform will find ways to take more potshots at the proposals. We don't need a special session of the Legislature later this year. We don't need to punt to the 2008 election year.

There are two main proposals on the table. One is written by myself and Perata, and one is from the governor. Let me explain why I think that the Nuñez-Perata bill is the only one that can succeed so we can begin to deliver what Californians need.


...snip
Those who want to see more complete coverage also will object to our plan because they'd rather see a single-payer system -- in which a government-run entity contracts with doctors and hospitals and handles all claims.

I embrace the idea; it is a noble goal and may one day prove to be the ultimate answer. It's overwhelmingly supported by legislative Democrats and has growing support from Californians. But in 2007, a single-payer plan would be vetoed by the Republican governor just as he did the version the Legislature sent him in 2006. Sacrificing the good for the perfect doesn't make sense in the world of public policy


...snip

We're not trying to turn this state into Cuba (with socialized medicine) or Canada (with a single-payer system). We're just trying to do right by these Californians. And doing right by them means doing reform right: a comprehensive healthcare reform plan that makes sense and that we can afford, and doing it now.

Fabian Nuñez is speaker of the Assembly.

[bluestateguy]

1. The DLC approach is a mystifyingly complex, corporate HillaryCare plan

A health care plan so bureaucratic and confusing that only a very small number of people can actually understand how it works.

[depakid]

2. This is just the sort of Dem that needs to be targeted and defeated

What a disgrace... though unfortunately, in my experience this is not at all uncommon among the Democrats in the California Assembly- which is entrenched and as corrupt as ever.

[Demeter]

3. If By Radical He Means Gets to the Root of the Problem and SOLVES It

then yes, by God, we are radicals, and so is our demand for universal, single payer health care.

Not insurance, not charity, but a public service funded by public money.

[madrchsod]

4. socialized medicine?

what about medicare/medicaid?

[papau]

5. Strip the Nunez down to a simple prohibition of pre-existing condition underwriting-then push single

payer -

pushing the Insurance company thought up HMO variations is nuts as it controls no costs and solves no health care problem other than having the state taking over the insurance company's marketing cost.

[bemildred]

6. If you don't get single payer, you got nothing.

You have to regulate, you have to get the insurance parasites out of the way and do something about cost and access. Better to make Ahnuld veto it until he pukes than to pass more dissembling, bullshit bills.