Keep on Keeping on with Universal HealthcareDick Pricebyline‚ May. 13‚ 2009Tempering the universal healthcare movement’s idealism with calls for pragmatic approaches, retired State Senator Sheila Kuehl preached persistence at last Saturday’s “Single Payer Solution” conference. “Our job is to convince California person by person, church by synagogue, worker by workplace by employer, that single payer is the right answer,” she told the packed sanctuary at Pasadena Presbyterian Church. Organized by the San Gabriel Valley Chapter of Health Care for All, the all-day conference drew several hundred healthcare activists and interested onlookers—many more than its organizers anticipated–to hear Kuehl and talks by Sara Rogers, Kuehl’s former health policy advisor who now works in a similar capacity for State Senator Mark Leno, and Elizabeth Sholes, Director of Public Policy for the California Council of Churches. Breakout sessions looked at ways to overcome objections and build support for single-payer healthcare in California and nationally. |