Nurses Keep Up Pressure For Single-Payer Bill
Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon blocked legislation that would be a first toward a single-payer system in the state, and faced threats because of the decision.
The Mercury News:
As Bernie Sanders Delays National Single-Payer Debate, California Nurses Keep The Heat On The Legislature
The day after Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders told CNN he would delay the release of his universal health-care plan until the Affordable Care Act debate has ended in Congress, the sponsors of a similar California proposal are keeping the heat on a legislative leader who moved to block it from advancing this year. The California Nurses Association and other supporters held a rally at the Capitol Monday, staging a sit-in outside the Assembly chamber, to pressure Speaker Anthony Rendon to change his mind and allow the state’s single-payer health care bill to move through his house. (Murphy, 7/3)
The Mercury News:
Bipartisan Blowback To `Bullying’ In California’s Single-Payer Health Care Debate
Since Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon revealed this week that he had received death threats on social media for his decision to block a single-payer health care bill from advancing this year, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have pushed back against the highly charged rhetoric and violent images targeting the Democrat. Labor unions, at least one gubernatorial candidate and lawmakers from both parties have criticized the tenor of the campaign by the California Nurses Association to persuade Rendon to change his mind, including one violent image its leaders circulated — a meme featuring a California bear with a knife bearing Rendon’s name stuck in its back. (Murphy, 6/30)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Infighting Among Allies Over State’s Tabled Health Care Bill
An effort to create a government-paid health care system for all Californians has morphed into a massive fight between Democrats at the Capitol and a nurses union, with insults, death threats and violent imagery of backstabbing directed at the legislative leader who pulled the plug on the bill. In an unusual move, the Assembly Democratic caucus issued a statement Friday condemning what they called bullying tactics used against Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Paramount (Los Angeles County). (Gutierrez, 6/30)
