To: Representatives Matsui, Bera, Garamendi, and McClintock; Senators Feinstein and Harris; Governor Newsom; Assemblymembers McCarty, Cooley, Cooper, Kiley, and Aguiar-Curry; State Senators Pan, Nielsen, and Dodd; Mayor Steinberg; Sacramento City Council; Sacramento County Supervisors
From the 2008 global financial collapse to the climate change-fueled fires that rocked Northern California, capitalism is causing devastating human crises. During each of these crises, it has been poor, working-class, and already marginalized people who have suffered the most — while banks, energy companies, and the real estate industry have been bailed out.
Now with the COVID-19 pandemic and the start of a new economic recession, it is health care and frontline workers, poor and unhoused people, the elderly, incarcerated people, the immunocompromised, immigrants, and other marginalized groups who are being impacted the most. At least 30 million workers have lost their jobs and up to 35 million people could lose their employer-sponsored health insurance. This is on top of the 87 million Americans who were uninsured or under-insured before the crisis hit. Millions of people are now vulnerable to illness while being unable to afford treatment, endangering whole communities.
It is clear our irrational and expensive patchwork healthcare system, organized not to protect human health but to extract profit, is failing us. No one in America who is sick, regardless of income or immigration status, should be afraid to seek the medical treatment they need during this national crisis. We demand an immediate working-class solution.
We urge you to support and advocate for the following:
1) Immediate health care relief via the Health Care Emergency Guarantee Act, sponsored by Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Sen. Bernie Sanders. The Act would use Medicare to cover all health care expenses for the duration of the crisis. By using Medicare we could quickly and efficiently expand coverage and streamline payments through a single system to hospitals and health care providers.
2) A permanent fix to the health care crisis via the Medicare for All Act (H.R. 1384, S. 1129), sponsored by Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Sen. Bernie Sanders. Medicare for All would expand the cost-effective and administratively efficient Medicare program to finance comprehensive, high quality health care for everybody in the United States.
3) A rejection of campaign contributions from executives, lobbyists, and PACs affiliated with the hospital, insurance, and pharma corporations within the corporate front group, the Partnership for America’s Health Care Future. We urge you to sign the Patients Over Profits Pledge:
https://patientsoverprofits.org 4) Immediate economic relief according to Bernie Sanders’s coronavirus relief priorities. This includes: monthly direct payments of $2,000 to every person in the country; using the Defense Production Act to produce the personal protective equipment and testing we need; adopting a strong OSHA emergency standard to protect health care workers; suspending monthly expenses like rent, mortgage payments, medical debt, and consumer debt; and an immediate moratorium on evictions, foreclosures, and utility shut-offs.
https://berniesanders.com/issues/priorities-next-coronavirus-relief-package/5) A Green New Deal jobs program according to the principles of H.Res.109, sponsored by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Instead of bailing out oil and natural gas companies during this crisis as Trump has suggested, Congress should take advantage of low oil prices to begin to phase out domestic oil production while introducing aggressive Green New Deal legislation that mandates carbon neutrality by 2030 while creating millions of good, green jobs.
If we are to avoid catastrophic climate change, we need to transition our economy off of fossil fuels starting immediately. With an economic crash that is putting millions out of work, low interest rates and an oil price crash make this the perfect time for the federal government to begin this transformation.
We look forward to hearing about your progress on these important and pressing issues.
Sincerely,
Danett
Abbott-Wicker
Emilia
Arnst-Goodrich
Andrew
Becker
Karen
Bernal
Glen
Bessemer
Alison
Brennan
Samantha
Brown
Emmanuel
Castrejon
Robert
Coplin
Ciaran
Cosley
Carey
Dall
Alyssa
De La Rosa
Chelsea
Deusenberry
William
Fayer
Chris
Felton
Stephanie
Fleming
Justin
Gallant
J.D.
Garcia
Raul
Gil
Naomi
Glen
Sarah
Glen
Avery
Gonsalves
Timothy
Irvine
Olga
Jimenez
Lisette
Johnston
Laurie
Jones
Mabel
Juarez
Mohammad
Kashmiri
Phillip
Kim
Alexandra
Lamirande
Robert
Longer
Madeline
Mabry
Omar
Mahmi
Jonathan
McGreal
Jennifer
Muir
Alison
Nealon
Darrell
Parker
Veta
Pasha
Gina
Patterson
Elsbeth
Poe
Amy
Pogue
Andrew
Post
Judith
Poxon
Daniel
Rapp
Connie
Reeder
Corey
Rodda
John
Rowe
David
Salkoff
Omar
Samara
Nicole
Scruggs
Elijah
Shears
Amar
Shergill
Christi-Anne
Sokolewicz
Shelby
Stephan
Del
Surette
Nathan
Unangst
Lucy
Walker
Edwina
White
Alexi
Wordell
[Thanks for signing! This was mailed on May 5, 2020. Please Call your Representative and urge them to support the Health Care Emergency Guarantee Act. Email
healthcare@sacdsa.org if you have any questions. Solidarity!]
