LWVC President Hirohama's Speech
OneCareNow Health Care Rally
August 11, 2007
Los Angeles
by Janis Hirohama, President, League of Women Voters of California
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!