Health Care: California's Moment and a National Movement

With President Bush's SCHIP veto setting a grim tone for the end of 2007, there are millions of families desperate for a sign that America is making progress on the battle for healthcare reform. (Anyone who doesn't think it's a battle, please recall what this administration did to Graeme Frost and his family after they spoke up for expanded funding for SCHIP. Then send an enormous lump of coal directly to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.)

The healthcare legislation that the California Assembly passed yesterday is an undeniable sign that the potential for real healthcare reform is alive and well in a state with the greatest number of uninsured in the nation and every complicating reason to simply throw up their hands in the face of this challenge: a looming state budget crisis; housing costs that lead the nation; struggling healthcare providers; an ever-widening gap between the rich and working families. No disrespect to California, but the list of challenges is long. And long before this historic vote, many parties could've thrown in the towel. But they didn't.