Arresting The Uninsured To Save Them

Even I was shocked to hear that California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez directed the California Highway Patrol to prevent our consumer group and an uninsured Massachusetts teacher from speaking out inside the Capitol against mandatory health insurance. The Capitol's famous rotunda is routinely used for press conferences by lobbyists and politicians.

Ron Norton, who cannot afford to buy health insurance under the Massachusetts law requiring all residents to purchase private insurance, was forced by the CHP to speak in the 38 degree weather outside.

Norton had joined with consumer advocates to release a new poll showing that only 16% of voters support the mandatory insurance purchases backed by Nunez and Governor Arnold Schwarzengger. (Read the poll results here.) Voters voiced strong support for insurance accountability reforms not incorporated in the Núñez/Schwarzenegger proposal.

Though they complied with the California Highway Patrol's order to leave the building, my colleagues Jerry Flanagan and Carmen Balber were later informed they are being written up for misdemeanors. They were also told our consumer group would not be able to speak to the press in the rotunda in the future. Nunez and the CHP will be hearing from our lawyers soon. (You can donate to help that effort here.)

The Capitol belongs to all of us, not the Speaker of the Assembly. The fact that Speaker Núñez thinks so little of the uninsured that he is willing to throw them out in the cold rather than have their voices heard in the Capitol speaks volumes about the true intent of his health care plan. It's also a metaphor for everything that's wrong with Nunez's mandatory purchase plan: it polices the uninsured, not the insurance companies.

Today's State Senate Health Committee hearing on the Nunez uninsured policing plan by Senator Sheila Kuehl has been rescheduled for next week. There's still time to weigh in with a fax. But don't be suprised when the California Highway Patrol knocks at your door.

Comments

[KevinKSF]

This is not at all surprising to Sacramento watchers in California. Fabian Nunez is nothing more than a Schwarzenegger enabler/butt kisser. It goes for Don Perata and over half the Democrats in the California Assembly. Busily lining their pockets wile the state faces another budget crisis. The core of the Democratic party is rotten and stinking in CA.

[Nevervotesrepublican]

Let's fix starvation. Those who can not afford to eat will be penalized by $300- the following year. Yep, Job done 4 weeks vacation for the legislators. Great job solving the hunger problem.

[Wulfstan]

Sickness of others is a chance to profit.

Prey on the poor, they cannot fight back.

Old Klingon proverbs.

[TheDoomed]

I just assumed this was called extortion, silly me.

[Merlin7]

The California and Massachusetts insurance plans are absurd -- legalistic violence inflicted by government on the American people. The plans merely guarantee the continuation of obscene industry profits. Already the Mass. plan is failing and, if adopted, the Calif plan will follow suit -- not that the legislators or industry execs will care. They will have locked into place the government subsidies, and that's what these plans are all about.

Meanwhile, have you noticed that Hillary, Barack and John don't talk much about health care anymore? They don't want the public to reach the inevitable conclusion: That our government is completely helpless in the face of industry pressure, and there's nothing we can do about it. So we all pretend that this election will somehow bring about meaningful change, like children clapping their hands to make Tinkerbell well again.