OneCareNow: Universal Health Insurance California's Grassroots Campaign

ONECARENOW CAMPAIGN
HIGHLIGHTS
2006-07

On August 12, 2006, the OneCareNow Campaign became the first-ever statewide grassroots campaign for single payer healthcare in the nation! Over the past twelve months, we’ve been enormously successful in educating Californians about SB 840 (Senator Sheila Kuehl’s universal single payer health care plan) and getting policy makers to pay attention to the growing demand for affordable, comprehensive health care for all Californians. Some of our achievements and successes follow.

On August 12, 2006, the OneCareNow Campaign launched its historic 365-City Campaign of unprecedented public activism for single-payer healthcare. Starting in Morro Bay, there has been at least one event for SB 840/OneCareNow in a different city every day for 365 days.

During the year, the OneCareNow Campaign brought together several organizations, equally committed to single payer health insurance, to form the State Strategy Group whose mission is to support single payer health insurance and to promote and expand the grassroots movement for single payer coverage in California.

With the active support of OneCareNow activists, SB 840 was passed by both houses of the California legislature in 2006, only to be vetoed by the Governor in September 2006.

In 2007, OneCareNow’s growing number of activists made their voices heard—through phone calls, e-mails and public testimonies—and in June 2007, the Senate passed Senator Kuehl’s newly reintroduced bill, SB 840, and sent it to the Assembly where it was approved by the Assembly Committee on Health in July 2007.

In 2007, countless single payer activists repeatedly packed Senate and Assembly hearing rooms, leading Sen. Kuehl to say at the Senate Health Committee hearing, “I’d first like to thank the 1.3 gazillion supporters of my bill who are here today.”

A SiCKO leafleting campaign at theaters throughout the state during the summer of 2007 succeeded in generating nearly 35,000 postcards expressing support for SB 840.
During the year, the OneCareNow Campaign network of support has expanded to include 40,000 Californians who have signed a petition in support of SB 840.

Since January, 2007, the HCA-produced DVD, “The Healthcare Solution: California OneCare", has sold over 5,000 copies. More than 20,000 people have watched it on YouTube and MySpace and it is being used as the OneCareNow Campaign’s essential educational tool at gatherings all over the state.

HCA created a MySpace page that has generated more than 5,000 ‘friends’ in just 3 months and is growing exponentially among young people with a passion about single payer healthcare.

On August 11, 2007, the OneCareNow Campaign celebrated its 365th consecutive campaign event with a massive rally of 3,000 people at Los Angeles’ City Hall. Speakers in L.A. included Sen. Kuehl, Lily Tomlin, Lt. Governor John Garamendi, U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Dolores Huerta, and spokespersons from the State Strategy Group. Attended by activists and supporters from all over California and covered in the media by affiliates of ABC, NBC, the CW, FOX, and Univision, the Great L.A. Health Care Rally was a fitting way to mark this year of great successes for single payer health care in California.