We’re excited to meet with Healthcare Champions Representative Nicole Macri, Senators Emily Randall and David Frockt to get their views on the healthcare wins we achieved together this legislative session in Olympia, and their thoughts on where we can go from here to win universal health care for Washingtonians. Please join us Tuesday, June 4th.
Dear Health Advocates:
We encourage everyone to attend and show support for Representative Jayapal’s Medicare for All Act!
Good news! The Senate version of the Pathway to Universal Health Care bill, SB 5822, is progressing through the Senate and if all goes well, it will go to the House. The first stop would be the Health Care & Wellness Committee, and we need your help getting a jump on building support for the bill in the House.
The most important thing we can do right now for universal health care is to encourage Representative Eileen Cody to support the Senate version of the Pathway to Universal Health Care bill.
Rep. Cody did not hold a hearing on the House version of the bill, so she will need some Kind, but Firm pressure from us.
Please email Rep. Cody, Chair of the House Healthcare & Wellness Committee, with the following:
• Urge Rep. Eileen Cody to support SB 5822, The Pathway to Universal Healthcare bill when it comes over to the House.
• Share why universal health care is important to you. Keep it persuasive and polite. Thank her for being a health care advocate. Provide your name, address, and legislative district.
• Copy the following Healthcare & Wellness Committee members and paste into the cc: line:
nicole.macri@leg.wa.gov, lauren.davis@leg.wa.gov, laurie.jinkins@leg.wa.gov,
marcus.riccelli@leg.wa.gov, june.robinson@leg.wa.gov, monica.stonier@leg.wa.gov, my-lihn.thai@leg.wa.gov, steve.tharinger@leg.wa.gov, joe.schmick@leg.wa.gov, michelle.caldier@leg.wa.gov, kelly.chambers@leg.wa.gov, richard.debolt@leg.wa.gov, paul.harris@leg.wa.gov, jacquelin.maycumber@leg.wa.gov
For more tips and ideas for writing your legislators, go here.
Thank you for all you do for Universal Health Care!
Dear Health Advocates:
Things are moving! On Wednesday, Feb 27 at 8:30 am Pacific Time, Congresswoman Jayapal is holding a press event to introduce the long-awaited Improved and Expanded Medicare for All bill she has updated with the help of colleagues and many allies. Watch it live here.
So far, Congressman Adam Smith is the only other member of the WA Congressional Delegation to join the 100 cosponsors of the new bill. Let’s keep talking with our other federal Representatives about why they should join this historic effort to achieve universal and affordable coverage for all. We will also want to keep encouraging our US Senators to co-sponsor a Senate companion bill when that is introduced.
In Olympia, The Pathway to Universal Health Care Bill, SSB 5822, will be heard in Senate Ways & Means this Wednesday the 27th at 1:30 PM. This is a key step to advance this important proposal for WA stakeholders to design ways in which our state could achieve truly universal and affordable health care, with the needed support from the federal government we hope will be forthcoming after the 2020 elections.
Your Action Needed Now: Please contact your state Senator and let them know why you personally support Universal Health Care and urge passage of SSB 5822.
Find your Senator and send an email here – or- Comment on the bill here.
If you or your organizational representative will be in Olympia on February 27, please sign-in PRO in support of SSB 5822 before the Ways & Means hearing begins at 1:30 in Hearing Room 4 of the J.A. Cherberg Building.
Correction: We made an error in stating that the Pathway bill is the first universal health care bill ever to make it out of committee. The Washington Health Services Act of 1993 not only got out of committee, it was passed into law as the first state-based plan to cover all residents! Sadly, it was repealed 2 years later after a national Republican wave that shifted power in Congress, WA and other states.
We have a victory to celebrate! SB 5822, The Pathway to Universal Health Care Bill, had a hearing in the Senate Health & Long-Term Care Committee last Monday, Feb, 18th and passed out of committee. Watch the hearing here.
Thank you to everyone who submitted testimony, attended the hearing, and wrote their legislators. Now the bill is in the Senate Ways and Means Committee. But there is still more to do.
Your Action Needed: Please contact your Senator and let them know why you personally support Universal Health Care and urge passage of SSB 5822 out of the Senate Ways and Means Committee.
Find your Senator and send an email here – or- Comment on the bill here.
We will be working to keep up the momentum in the Ways and Means Committee and work for improvements including 1) the inclusion of patient and community health advocates in the Work Group, and 2) recommendation for a system that includes publicly funded and publicly administered care which is affordable to all Washington residents.
We can make some progress at the state and local levels now, and in 2021 we may have elected a House, Senate and President supportive of achieving universal health care. This could include helping states achieve the goal if they are ready before the federal government is able to adopt a national health plan. This is the purpose of the State-Based Universal Health Care Act which Congresswoman Jayapal introduced last year and which will be reintroduced soon. We need to be ready.
Updated Feb. 24, 2019
Watch the hearing including testimony in support of the bill and amendments, from Health Care Is a Human Right – WA and several of our member organizations and allies:
Viewing guide:
1:38:42 Staff Briefing on SB 5822
1:40:20 Sen. Randall and Rep. Macri (prime sponsors) followed by testimony in favor: Chris Covert-Bowlds, MD, Health Care for All Washington; Gary Renville, Project Access Northwest; Reena Koshy, MD, Washington Coalition to Protect our Patients; David Loud, Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action and HCHR WA; Marcia Stedman, Health Care for All Washington; Cindi Laws, Health Care for All Washington; Jonathan Seib, Molina Healthcare of Washington; Nathan Rodke, Washington CAN; Bailey Boyd, citizen; Sadiqa Sakin, President, NAACP Seattle/King County; Nikki Gomez, citizen.
