Competing solutions for health care

Health care is the big news in Sacramento this year. Three competing plans propose to insure more Californians and reform health care. 

The legislative leaders’ and the governor’s plans give employers a choice: either provide health insurance or contribute to a state-run pool for buying insurance from private companies. Sen. Kuehl’s plan would have all employers and employees pay premiums to support a single public insurance program that would cover everybody. Here are key points of these plans.

(Thanks to On the Capitol Doorstep for providing the format and some of the information for this chart.)

For more information:

• Schwarzenegger’s plan: www.stayhealthycalifornia.com
• Legislative leaders’ plan: http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/
• Sen. Kuehl’s plan: http://dist23.casen.govoffice.com

Mothers and others organizing online

Action: Two organizations are working to mobilize national grassroots pressure for policies that support families and children.

Background: MomsRising is an Internet-based effort to mobilize political pressure for policies that families need. Based on their book, The Motherhood Manifesto, this organization sends out email alerts and provides easy ways to take action to support causes like paid family leave, equal pay for women, flexible work, funding for afterschool programs, child care, health care, and more. They recently started a companion web site, Families Rising.

For info: www.momsrising.org, www.familiesrising.org

Meanwhile the National Organization for Women has launched a campaign called “Mothers Matter, Caregivers Count,” which “calls for taking action in the workplace and the legislature, and calling out the media for its bias against our nation’s largely woman-powered caregiving workforce.” They provide an online “action kit” with background information and suggested actions.

For info: www.now.org/issues/mothers/mmcc.html

Federal bills for families

Action: Advocates for women and families are rallying support for three bills now in Congress that would restore funding for child support enforcement, guarantee workers paid sick leave, and create policies that help balance work and family.

Background: The Child Support Protection Act (H.R. 1386/S. 803) would restore funding for child support enforcement, now threatened with budget cuts.

According to the National Women’s Law Center, this program “collected $24 billion in child support from noncustodial parents in 2006.”

For info: National Women’s Law Center, www.nwlc.org

The Healthy Families Act (S. 910/H.R. 1542), would guarantee workers (in businesses with 15 or more employees) seven days of paid sick leave for their own illness or an illness in the family.

For info: National Council of Women’s Organizations, 202-293-4505, www.womensorganizations.org/

The Family and Workplace Balancing Act, H.R. 2392, by California’s Rep. Lynn Woolsey, aims to “improve the lives of working families by providing family and medical need assistance, child care assistance, and after-school assistance, family care assistance, and encouraging the establishment of family-friendly workplaces.”

For info: National Organization for Women, 202-628-8669 (628-8NOW), www.now.org

Lights on After School

Action: Join or organize an event to highlight the need for high-quality, affordable after-school programs—or attend an event to find out about afterschool programs in your community.

Background: The national Afterschool Alliance will hold its seventh Lights On After School event October 18. Events all over the country (in more than 7,500 communities) will call attention to the importance of quality, affordable after-school programs for children, families, and communities. The Afterschool Alliance web site provides a way to find events in your community as well as an event planning kit to help you organize your own.

For info: 202-347-1002, http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/loa.cfm

Toys recalled

Several companies have recalled dangerous toys.

For small parts/choking hazard:

• Mattel: magnetic toys, toy cars

For dangerous levels of lead:

• Fisher-Price: Elmo, Big Bird, Dora, Diego toys
• Future Industries and GeoCentral: children's jewelry
• RC2 Corp: Thomas and Friends trains and toys

Children under six are most vulnerable to lead poisoning, which can cause learning disabilities and behavior problems. Most lead poisoning is caused by lead-based paint, but some toys made outside the US, candy, folk remedies, and ceramics also contain lead.

For more info: U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, 800-638-2772, www.cpsc.gov

Organizing against gun violence

Action: Grassroots groups of parents working to reduce gun violence are rallying support for two bills in the California legislature.

Background: The California Brady Chapters, affiliated with the national Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the Million Mom March, is a network of 18 grassroots organizations throughout California. The organization says previous laws they have helped pass have reduced gun violence already— California’s rate of gun violence has dropped faster than the national average, but there’s still too much violence and many gun crimes are not solved.

This year the group is backing:

• AB 1471 (Feuer), which would require all semiautomatic handguns to be equipped to put a unique identifying “fingerprint” on each cartridge case when the gun is fired, to make it easier to solve handgun crimes.
  
  
• AB 334 (Levine), which would require handgun owners to report lost or stolen guns, making it easier to reduce illegal sales of handguns and to solve crimes committed with stolen guns.

For info including contact information for the Brady Chapter nearest you, www.bradycampaign.org/