All Californians deserve health care
By Fabrizio Sasso
Executive Director, Sacramento CLC
As a union leader, I have seen up close just how critical good health insurance is for working families.
I have watched members skip doctor visits because their deductible was too high. I have seen workers stay in jobs they hated, or accept lower wages, just to keep their family covered. And I have watched employers time and again either refuse to provide decent health care or use it as a bargaining chip to keep wages low. That’s not an accident. It’s a system that was designed to work that way and it’s time we changed it.
That’s why I support CalCare, Assembly Bill 1900 which you can read about more on our front page. This is California’s single-payer health care bill. I support this effort not just as a union member, but as a human being who believes that no one should have to choose between paying rent and going to the doctor.
Let’s be honest about how the current system actually works. Right now, insurance companies are not in the business of keeping you healthy. They are legally required to make money for their shareholders. That means every time they deny a claim, reject a prior authorization or push you into a narrow network that doesn’t include your doctor, they are doing exactly what they were designed to do. The system isn’t broken. It’s working perfectly—just not for us.
Every dollar that goes to a CEO bonus, a stock buyback or an insurance company’s advertising budget is a dollar that came out of your paycheck and didn’t pay for your care. Think about that the next time you get a bill you can’t pay.
CalCare changes that. Under this plan, every Californian gets covered. No premiums. No deductibles. No copays. Dental, vision, mental health, prescriptions long-term care—all of it. It doesn’t matter if you work full time or part time, if you change jobs, if you go on strike, or if you retire. You’re covered. Period.
And before anyone asks how we pay for it—we’re already paying for it. We pay through employer premiums, employee premiums, deductibles, copays and state and federal health programs. CalCare doesn’t add a new cost. It replaces a wasteful, fragmented mess with one system that actually works. For most working families, the total cost goes down.
For unions, this would be a game changer. Health care is the biggest issue at almost every bargaining table in California. Employers use rising premiums as an excuse to freeze wages and demand givebacks. When we take health care off the table, we get our power back. We can fight for higher wages, better pensions, safer workplaces and stronger staffing. That’s what collective bargaining is supposed to look like.
But this isn’t just a union issue. This is about every worker—the cashier, the home care aide, the restaurant cook, the construction worker—who wakes up every morning and goes to work and still can’t afford to get sick. In the richest state in the richest country on earth, that is a moral failure.
Health care is not a privilege you earn by having the right job or enough money in your bank account. It is a human right. And it’s past time California started treating it like one.
CalCare is how we get there. Let’s fight like hell to make it happen.