LWVC President Janis Hirohama and LWVC Social
Policy Director Julie Rajan at the August 11 event in Los Angeles. |
My
name is Janis Hirohama. As the president of the League of Women Voters
of California, I know something about what it takes to bring about change.
The League of Women Voters was born out of a great social movement -
the historic struggle for women’s suffrage. In 1920, the 19th Amendment
was ratified - after a hundred year struggle - and women at long last
gained the right to vote.
The suffragists who fought for women’s rights founded the League of Women
Voters in 1920 because they realized that the millions of newly enfranchised
women voters needed to understand and influence the issues that affect
government. We have the same mission today: to empower people by encouraging
informed and active participation in government through education and
advocacy.
Today the League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan political organization
whose members include both women and men, continues to educate ourselves,
and the public, on issues. We advocate on public policy issues, but only
after our members have carefully studied them and have agreed to a position
on those issues.
The League has long been a supporter of health care reform, and specifically
single payer health care. Why? Because we’ve studied the issue. That’s
what we do. We concluded that single payer health care was the best way
of ensuring fair, quality, and above all universal, health care for all
Americans. That is why we have been educating the public about the merits
of single payer health care since the 1970s, and that is why we are fighting
for SB 840.
After Proposition 186 was defeated in 1994, a dedicated group of activists
from that campaign stood their ground and vowed to keep fighting for single
payer health care in California. In 1996, they organized under the name
Health Care for All - California and worked steadily over the years for
passage of single payer health care. Now, here we stand today, united
under the banner of HCA’s OneCareNow Campaign. The Legislature finally
did pass SB 840 last year. Although it was vetoed by the Governor, we
are still here. We still have a viable bill.
The League is a proud supporter of the single payer movement in California,
and has been for more than a decade. We are honored to work in coalition
with the organizations here today, whose involvement in this campaign
has been crucial to its success. And, we are all committed for the duration
of this campaign.
The League of Women Voters will continue to call on our local Leagues
throughout the state to work in coalition with organizations that support
SB 840. We will seek city, county and school board resolutions to support
SB 840. We will continue to educate the public about single payer health
care at every opportunity. We will train speakers to take our message
to the business community. We will talk with friends and neighbors, and
they will talk to their friends and neighbors. Our emails will spread
the good news that every Californian will soon have high quality and affordable
comprehensive health care.
The League will continue supporting SB 840 until it is signed and becomes
the law of the land. If our foremothers could get us the vote, we can
get single payer enacted. We will overcome the insurance and pharmaceutical
interests the same way: with passion, commitment, and hard work. The tide
has turned. We will persevere. We will win! We will have single payer
health care in California!
