The San Diego Union-Tribune
June 26, 2007

Going grass-roots for health care
by Keith Darce

Jun. 26--A coalition of labor unions and community organizations pushing for passage of health care insurance reform in California yesterday launched a four-day, five-city publicity tour in San Diego.

It's Our Healthcare is hoping its tour will put pressure on state lawmakers to embrace the coalition's priorities in the debate that was launched early this year when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed an ambitious reform plan.
Yesterday's event at the Civic Concourse in downtown San Diego was a combination news conference and public rally, with coalition leaders and several uninsured Californians speaking about problems they've encountered when seeking health care.

Participants in the group include the California Labor Foundation, the AARP, the Service Employees International Union and the Consumers Union. The tour is scheduled to pass through Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Fresno and San Francisco before ending in Sacramento on Thursday afternoon.

Schwarzenegger's proposal, among other things, mandates that all Californians obtain health insurance coverage and requires companies with 10 or more workers to provide insurance plans to employees or to pay a penalty equaling 4 percent of payroll.

Democrats have crafted their own reform plan that doesn't contain a mandate to obtain insurance and requires California businesses to spend at least 7.5 percent of their payroll costs on employee health care benefits.
While the coalition favors the plan put forth by the Democrats over the governor's plan, neither contains all of the elements that the group considers critical, said Art Pulaski, executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation.

The coalition wants lawmakers to cap insurance premiums at "affordable" levels, and it wants businesses and government to bear a larger portion of the financial burden for insuring the 6.5 million Californians who don't have coverage.

Pulaski said the coalition is hoping that its grass-roots tour will help counter some of the disadvantages the group faces in Sacramento when confronting well-funded lobbying efforts by the insurance and pharmaceutical industries.
"We don't have the money to match that," he said. "The only way we can get the attention of legislators is by the swelling demand by consumers across California. That's why we've organized this tour."

In some ways, the coalition has taken a page from Schwarzenegger's playbook. The governor has spent the past six months traveling the state to pitch his reform plan directly to constituents in hopes of building support for it among lawmakers.