Greetings,

Once again Congress has shown unwillingness to protect Americans’ health care. In The American Prospect, Robert Kuttner explains that the federal shutdown is over without an extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidies. In The Lever, Freddy Brewster and Luke Goldstein discuss legislation that eliminates some foodborne illness and contamination rules that was added to the emergency spending bill to reopen the federal government.

It’s up to states to improve health care. In CA we have the opportunity to improve our health care financing system by fighting for CalCare in 2026. A recent poll by The California Wellness Foundation shows that in CA nearly 80% of voters are worried about the cost of care and 66% of voters express concern about being able to care for aging family members or friends.

In addition to providing petitions to sign, we share articles about disparities in mortality between Black and White Americans, UnitedHealthcare’s (UHC) ongoing goal of profits for shareholders at our expense and Luigi Mangione’s concern about UHC’s greed. We want leaders who will fight for our needs, as shown by the election of Zohran Mamdani to New York City mayor. We also share John Oliver’s accurate and comical explanation of Medicare Advantage and associated absurdities. 

Stop hospital facility fees in CA 

Patients are charged these fees even when they don’t visit the hospital and when they have a telehealth visit. Yes, you read this correctly. Todd, a teacher from West Covina in LA County tells his story. CA doesn’t have a law to prohibit facility fees. 

Stop Congress from blocking state food safety laws

States lead the way in protecting our health – they’re banning toxic food chemicals the FDA hasn’t regulated. On October 23rd, 84 organizations called on Congress to oppose any legislative efforts that block state laws protecting consumers from toxic chemicals in food.

Americans’ life expectancy decreased by 16 months between 2014 and 2022. Moreover, when comparing data from 2012 and 2022, Black Americans experienced persistently higher and worsening rates of premature mortality compared with White individuals across most states including CA. Read the Journal of the American Medical Association Research Letter authored by Irene Papanicolas, Maecey Niksch and Jinru Wei.

Improvements to the 2024 CalCare bill, AB 2200 included an Office of Health Equity that  addresses racial disparities in burden of disease and death, barriers to health care access, inequitable distribution of health care services and discrimination in health care settings. CalCare can help narrow the gap between life expectancy rates of Black and White Californians. 

In this article, Ken Klippenstein highlights Luigi Mangione’s concern about the greed of UHC and other insurance corporations. He also posits that Zohran Mamdani’s “willingness to think big and forgo the piecemeal for the ambitious” attracted voters. CalCare acknowledges that our health care financing system needs a complete makeover, since health insurance companies, hospitals and private equity firms find ways to subvert incremental laws and regulations.

While educating viewers about the pitfalls of Medicare Advantage plans and their deceitful marketing tactics, John Oliver and his team on Last Week Tonight help us laugh at the absurdity of it all.

ORGANIZE. AGITATE. EDUCATE. LEGISLATE.

THANK YOU!