About 30 UCLA students will learn how to lobby and will promote
universal health care in Sacramento next Tuesday during the second
annual Universal Health Care Lobby Day.
The UCLA chapter of the American Medical Student Association
will join more than 300 other AMSA members from California colleges
in an effort to change the state’s current health care
system.
“As future physicians, we feel the health care situation
is in a dire state and we feel some change needs to take
place,” said Yushiu Lin, internal vice president of AMSA.
Lin, along with other members from AMSA, handed out fliers and
balloons with health care facts to students in Bruin Plaza on
Wednesday to inform students why they are lobbying next week.
One statistic read that 18,000 people between the ages of 25 to
64 die annually from a lack of health insurance, making it the
seventh leading cause of death.
“We’re doing this to encourage people to join us and
get people to think about our health care system, or lack of it, in
California,” said Jane Ma, community and public health
co-chair of AMSA.
On Tuesday, students plan to lobby for Senate Bill 840, a
universal health care bill prepared by Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa
Monica. The bill will introduce a single-payer health care system,
where everyone pays into one fund that is used solely for health
care.
Students will be taught how to lobby in the morning and will
attend a rally in the afternoon. They will also meet with state
senators and congressmen from their home districts to discuss the
issue, Lin said.
Last year, the 150 students who attended the event were able to
acquire two co-signers for the bill, said Erica Brode, external
president of AMSA.
“The rally was really great. It was intimidating at first
because you go there and get trained in the morning, and in the
afternoon, you already have your appointment with a senator or
representative,” Lin said.
Talking to the government officials was one of the best parts of
the event for Brode.
“I lobbied (Assemblyman) Roger Niello in person and even
though he was a staunch Republican against SB 840, we spoke for an
hour and 15 minutes about health care options,” Brode
said.
Until universal health care is achieved, Brode said Universal
Health Care Lobby Day will be an annual event.
“We want to inform the student body and inform others;
change is the motive here,” Brode said.
SB 840, which AMSA lobbied for last year as well, was approved
by both the Assembly and Senate, but vetoed by the governor.
The bill will be re-introduced this year.
“We want change. Right now, doctors have no
decision-making power, due to the insurance companies dictating
what they’ll pay for,” Brode said. “Instead of
strict protocol, SB 840 would give doctors autonomy to a certain
extent.”
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently announced his health care
reform ideas, in which health care will be mandatory for everyone
in California and those without it will be subject to tax
penalties. Under this plan, employers with 10 or more employees
would either have to pay 4 percent of the employees’ payroll
to health care, or offer health insurance to them.
Unlike SB 840, the governor’s plan will not eliminate
private health insurers.
“I don’t believe that government should be getting
in there and should start running a health care system that is kind
of done and worked on by government,” Schwarzenegger said in
a speech in July.
“I think that what we should do is be a
facilitator.”
Several government officials, especially Republicans, oppose
both SB 840 and the governor’s plan.
“Imposing a new jobs tax on employers of any size and
expanding costly government mandates is the wrong approach, one
which will devastate our economy,” Assembly Republican leader
Mike Villines said in a statement.
With reports from Bruin wire services.