December 21, 2022 Nurses’ Campaign to Win CalCare (info@medicare4all.org)
This year, we continued the important work that began in 2021 to build momentum for single-payer health care in California — also known as CalCare. In January alone, we created serious momentum, then re-launched our campaign in the spring to help elect a slate of CalCare Champions to the state legislature and continued organizing for CalCare in districts across the state.
We’re entering 2023 in a strong position as a movement, and we can’t wait to see what we’re able to accomplish together. Here’s a recap of what we accomplished this year with your support:
We mobilized our movement to get CalCare to the Assembly floor
With January 31 being the deadline to move AB 1400 (the California Guaranteed Health Care for All Act) out of the Assembly, we knew that we had to hit the ground running in 2022. So on January 8, the first Saturday after the new year, we organized a statewide Day of Action with 15 car caravans across the state and a huge car rally in Sacramento. That same day, we placed an ad in the Sacramento Bee to ensure that our legislators were fully aware of our movement’s demands.
After an incredible showing of support from across the state, AB 1400 passed the Assembly Health Committee the following Tuesday with an 11-3 vote.
The next hurdle was to pass the bill through the Assembly Appropriations Committee — its last step before reaching the Assembly floor. We knew that this vote could possibly be close, so we organized multiple statewide virtual phone bank parties ahead of the vote. Dozens of volunteers showed up to make calls to CalCare supporters in the districts of Appropriation Committee members and ask them to call their rep to urge them to vote yes.
On January 20, as a result of our collective statewide organizing and momentum in the Assembly, AB 1400 passed the Appropriations Committee with another 11-3 vote — thereby sending it to the Assembly floor.
Just two days later, the Sacramento Bee Editorial Board endorsed CalCare and called on Governor Newsom and the legislature to move it forward.
In the final days before the floor vote, we held a statewide virtual rally, joined by over 600 volunteers and activists, as well as prominent guest speakers including Ady Barkan, co-founder of Be A Hero, and Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the California Labor Federation. We called on supporters to join us in the final days to take actions on social media, write letters, and more.
On January 31, hundreds of supporters joined us for a live watch party of the Assembly floor vote. Just four years earlier we couldn’t move this bill past the Speaker’s desk, and now we not only had Speaker Anthony Rendon’s vocal support for CalCare, we had reached the Assembly floor. Despite this momentum, the bill was pulled from the floor by its author before it could be voted on. We deeply disagreed with this decision and were extremely disappointed, but we dusted ourselves off and got back to work.
We launched the Nurses’ Campaign to Elect CalCare Champions
In February, we published a Medium article with our analysis of what happened on the day of the floor vote in January — and made it clear that union nurses will never stop fighting for CalCare.
That’s why, in March, we launched the Nurses’ Campaign to Elect CalCare Champions, announcing a slate of seven candidates running for Assembly or State Senate who we identified as CalCare Champions. We set out to organize and help ensure that each of them were elected.
In the following two months, we accomplished a huge amount of work together, including:
- Contacted 463,000 voters by text across the seven races.
- Identified over 5,000 supporters.
- Called each of those supporters back through statewide phone banks to GOTV.
We’re proud to share that all seven of our CalCare Champions advanced in their primaries on June 7.
The Healthy California for All Commission Report was published
On April 25, the Healthy California for All Commission, which had been created by Governor Newsom to ‘develop a plan for universal health care’ in California, published its final report.
Our very own Carmen Comsti, Lead California Regulatory Policy Specialist for the California Nurses Association, was appointed to the Commission back in 2019 and had been a fierce advocate for single-payer through the process. At the end of the Commission, Carmen became the sole ‘no’ vote on the report, citing that it fell far short of its stated goal to move us down the path toward a single-payer system. Carmen wrote about her decision in a Medium blog shortly afterward.
Carmen voting no in the final commission meeting
We continued organizing for CalCare across the state
We knew that if we wanted to move CalCare forward in 2023, we had to keep organizing across every corner of the state and lay the groundwork early. That’s why, on a July strategy call joined by hundreds of supporters, we relaunched a statewide CalCare organizing plan ahead of the 2023 legislative session.
Dozens of volunteers signed up to become District Leaders in their area and help organize their communities. And most notably, we launched the Nurses’ CalCare Patients Protection Pledge, calling on candidates and elected officials at every level in California to pledge to do everything in their power to support CalCare.
We elected CalCare Champions in the November General Election
After all 7 of our CalCare Champions advanced in their primary elections, we launched a new phase of our campaign for the general election, expanding the slate to a total of 11 candidates running for Assembly and State Senate.
With the help of our incredible text and call volunteer teams, we pulled off a huge electoral organizing program:
- Sent a total of 1,086,574 initial texts to voters across the 11 races.
- Identified 6,381 additional supporters for the 11 candidates.
- Followed up with ~11,000 total identified supporters through several rounds of GOTV texts and phone banking.
- Had 725 phone conversations with supporters to confirm their plan to vote in the general election.
We’re so thrilled to share that 9 of our 11 candidates won their elections and are joining the legislature this January, setting the stage for a historic amount of support for CalCare in the capitol this upcoming session!
We grew our CalCare District Leader program
Over the course of the fall, more than 50 volunteers have been working as District Leaders in their communities to organize for CalCare. As a result of their work, so far over 20 candidates and elected officials have taken the CalCare Pledge.
This year brought a tremendous amount of both heartbreak and victory. While we’re devastated that CalCare didn’t receive the floor vote it deserved in January, we know that we only made it that far because of the power and momentum of our movement.
In many ways, we’re stronger than ever — and we learned some key lessons that are informing how we move forward. Stay tuned for more in early 2023 as we hit the ground running for CalCare in the next legislative session.
In solidarity,
Nurses’ Campaign to Win CalCare
