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[CaPA Office Manager]

CaPA NEWSLETTER February 2008

1. Announcements
2. President's Report (Shearer)
3. CaPA Report (Capell)
4. Lobby Day (Duncan, Tipirneni)

Dear CaPA Activists-

We would like to extend our most sincere apology for Wednesday's
onslaught of email. Here at CaPA we are very aware of the concern that
many of you have expressed over the volume of email that was generated
by CaPA's Google Group and it's Discussion Page yesterday. We also
sympathize with and understand the value of everybody's time. While we
definitely encourage the voicing of opinions on our Discussion board,
we do not wish to push existing members away with overwhelming amounts
of correspondence, which we feel that we have been very careful not to
do in the past. We are working very diligently to correct this error
within the group mailing settings. We ask that all members bear with
us as we work to make these corrections. We'd like to keep those of
you who are on the mailing list up to date with CaPA's activities,
upcoming events, and developments with our Newsletter and Calendar of
Events notices. The following precautions will be taken to ensure that
the number of emails that our members are receiving is kept to a
minimum:

1.) Everyone's email settings will be set to "Abridged Emails".
Under this email setting, members will receive no more than one
email per day, unless they decide to change the settings themselves.
Individual email settings for the Google Group can be changed on the
site below following these directions:
http://groups.google.com/group/california-physicians-alliance?hl=en

Click on "edit my membership" on the right column, and then choose
your email preference and click "save these settings."

2.) Messages posted on the Discussion Board will now be moderated,
and will need to be approved by the CaPA Office Manager before they
are posted onto the board.

We are confident that these group settings will be effective in
preventing large quantities of unwanted correspondence from passing
through to our member base.
We once again would like apologize for any confusion and/or
frustration this may have caused. We ask that you continue to support
CaPA and the efforts being made to advance to a single payer
healthcare system here in California and nationwide. Thank you for
your time and understanding.

Kindest Regards,
Roberto Ramos
CaPA Office Manager



President's Report

If the first six weeks of the new year are typical, it's going to be
quite a year! And, by that, I mean a good and productive year for
CaPA. For instance:

Lobby Day on Jan. 28 in Sacramento was a spectacular success, and will
be reported in this Newsletter elsewhere, in more detail. In brief,
more than 325 students descended on the Capitol, rallied, and lobbied
their legislators for SB 840. It truly was awesome.

The day before, the CaPA Board of Directors held it's biannual face-to-
face board meeting at the Sacramento campus of UC Davis Medical
School. Twelve board members were able to attend, and we had an
extremely productive meeting. Immediately following, the members
participated in the student Lobby Day training, in preparation for the
event the next day. CaPA is pleased to have funded the major part of
the student training: transportation, housing, and food.

The first chapter of CaPA, the Los Angeles chapter, got off the ground
with it's first project, a speakers training conference call,
"Presenting Single Payer to the Business Community." It was held on
Feb. 3. Organized by Dr. Geoffry White, it was moderated by Dr. Nancy
Greep, and taught by Dr. Deb Richter, PNHP-Vermont. There were
approximately 20 attendees. A systematic program is in the works to
contact Rotary clubs across the state to arrange talks by CaPA
members. Contact the CaPA office for details

On Jan. 28, the Senate Health Committee voted against ABX1 1, the
Nunez bill for health care reform. CaPA had opposed this legislation
as flawed. We feel that it is time for everyone now to join forces,
and move ahead with a meaningful health care plan. CaPA will continue
to advocate for single payer, SB 840 in California, and HR 676 in
Washington.

Our new office manager, Roberto Ramos, came on board in January. He
promises to be a real asset for CaPA. Welcome, Roberto! And to
departing Emma Pollin, thanks for a job well done, and CaPA's best
wishes for your future. We know you'll write the novel of the century!

I'll take this opportunity to announce my retirement as CaPA
president, after many years. On Feb. 14, I'll begin a "phaseout",
continuing to fill the role and perform the duties of president, with
a view to keeping the organization at peak functioning until a new
president is up to speed. Discussions are beginning with some of our
activists who might step up to fill the role. Your nominations are
welcome. As soon as willing candidates are identified, they'll be
announced, and an election will be held.

John R. Shearer, MD
President, California Physicians Alliance


CaPA Report:
By: Beth Capell, CaPA Lobbyist

ABx1 1 (Nunez/Perata)

ABx1 1 (Nunez/Perata) failed when Senator Sheila Kuehl, chair of the
Senate Health Committee joined Senate Republicans in voting no on this
measure, which would have provided coverage to 70% of the uninsured,
most of them low-income Californians and persons of color. Most other
Senate Democrats abstained from voting on the measure.

The vote came after an 11-hour hearing in which Quentin Young, M.D.,
long-time PNHP leader joined many others in testifying against the
measure. Supporters of the measure also testified at length.

The Legislative Analyst provided an analysis of the measure that
questioned whether the estimated cost was correct and whether the
federal government would approve the needed changes to the Medicaid
program. These changes have been approved in every other state that
has sought approval, even in the recent dark days of the Bush
Administration.

The failure of ABx1 1 in the Legislature means that no health reform
measure will proceed to the November 2008 ballot.


SB840 (Kuehl)/SB1014 (Kuehl)

SB840 (Kuehl) is in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. It must
pass that committee by Friday, August 15, 2008, if it is going to move
to the Governor this year. In 2006 Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed an
earlier single payer measure and has repeatedly re-affirmed his
intention to veto SB840 if it makes it to his desk. Organizing for
SB840 continues.

SB1014 (Kuehl), the financing mechanism for SB840, remains in Senate
Revenue and Taxation Committee. Under the California Constitution, its
passage would require a two-thirds vote of the Senate as well as a two-
third vote of the Assembly. If it is amended to be similar to what was
modeled by the Lewin Group, it would impose a payroll tax of 8% on
employers, 4% on employees and 12% on the self-employed as well as
other taxes in order to raise approximately $100 billion in new
revenue to finance the single payer health care system.

Full implementation of SB840/SB1014 would require changes to the
Medicaid and Medicare program that have never received approval by the
federal government and that may require changes in federal law in
order to allow the integration Medicaid, SCHIP and Medicare into a
California single payer system.

Lobby Day 2008: Students and CaPA members Join Forces in Sacramento
for the Third Year in a Row



By: Parker Duncan, MS4/MPH(c), UC Irvine & Renuka Tipirneni, MS4,
UCSF,
CaPA Student Board Members; Lobby Day 2008 Co-coordinators

In a tradition that started in January 2006, health professional
students from across the state converged with CaPA members in
Sacramento on January 28, 2008, to call on state legislators to
support SB 840. Over 350 students of medicine, nursing, occupational
therapy, public health and other health professions joined almost 50
CaPA physicians and community members from the California Universal
Health Care Organizing Project in a raucous rally on the Capitol
steps. The crowd enveloped keynote speaker State Senator Sheila Kuehl
in a sea of white coats and signs, and cheered on the other speakers,
including CaPA board member Richard Quint and student leaders from
Irvine, Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Francisco. Afterwards,
participants conducted legislative visits with almost every Senator
(38 of 40), and most Assembly members (65 of 80), securing at least
four new co-authorships, two new yes votes, and numerous pledges for
continued support (based on our unofficial tally).

Notably, in addition to increasing numbers and broadening the
coalition, Lobby Day expanded this year with two new developments:
first, a fabulous Training Day on Sunday, January 27th, hosted at the
UC Davis SOM; then, to cast a proper close to our two-days of building
energy and activism, a Candlelight Vigil on Monday afternoon, held in
remembrance of those who have perished or been harmed as a result of
our for-profit health insurance system.

The Training Day was a resounding success--6 hours of action-packed,
interactive training. Board Member Richard Quint fired the day off to
a rousing start with his Healthcare 101 talk. PNHP veteran Don
McCanne then presented on the fundamental flaw of private health
insurance. Later Sara Rogers, of Senator Kuehl's office, fielded
questions about SB 840. Eric Haas and Joe Brewer of the Rockridge
Institute discussed framing and messaging as it relates to the logic
of the health care debate. Lastly, Parker Duncan presented the
concept of "Message-in-a-Box", aimed at preparing people for their
legislative visits. Breakout sessions followed, allowing participants
to practice the new skills they had just learned. Students' level of
political discussion rose to a degree of sophistication not seen
before. To close the event, CaPA president John Shearer thanked the
students and made a moving pitch for CaPA membership. Lastly, Richard
Quint and Vanessa Calderon, MS3 at UCLA, offered some motivational
words about the importance of our role in healthcare reform.

The Training Day and Lobby Day would not have been possible without
the incredible support and collaboration of CaPA. Students were
grateful for the enormous generosity of donations from the CaPA
holiday party (including the wonderful support of the California
Endowment, which funded bus transportation for almost 300 students to
attend Training Day), as well as emotional, logistical and
intellectual support throughout the year. Thank you to outgoing
office manager Emma Pollin and incoming manager Roberto Ramos for help
with communication and press in the last hours. Finally, we offer a
special heartfelt thanks to the endurance of John Shearer and Richard
Quint for their dogged and tireless support since our first Lobby Day
in 2006. Lobby Day 2008 was not only another successful event but has
sparked an energy for political action that continues to grow day by
day across California.

Please take a moment to enjoy the online photo albums and YouTube
video!

Ÿ Photos by Jack Eads, father of UCI MS2 Andy Eads:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=iiuzri9.5pyzmf8l&Uy=-qdq2gl&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0

Ÿ Photos by Khanh Trinh, MS3, UCSF: http://picasaweb.google.com/kdtrinh/01270128LobbyDay2008

Ÿ Video by Aleks Robles, MS1, UCDavis: http://youtube.com/watch?v=pYoe6hJAXaw


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