Conference Committee Approves Responsible, Compromise Budget

On July 9, the Conference Committee of the legislature passed a budget that includes both substantial cuts and substantial new revenues. The budget is painful but avoids the deeper and more damaging cuts proposed by the Governor, restoring 2.5 billion to education and 1.8 billion to health and human services.  Read SEIU’s reaction and the California Budget Project’s side-by-side chart comparing the Conference Committee’s budget to other proposals.
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While our primary healthcare goal this year must be to stop the devastating budget cuts that would add a million Californians to the rolls of the uninsured, SEIU continues to push for components of the healthcare reform package we fought for in 2007. Working with our allies from last year’s “It’s OUR Healthcare!” campaign, we continue to lay the groundwork for comprehensive reform by tackling a range of critical healthcare issues. Some of the key reform components have made legislative progress in recent weeks, including:
• Giving consumers more information about healthcare costs and quality, so that consumers have real choices and can shape the healthcare market by avoiding costly and ineffective care AB2967 (Lieber)
• Prohibiting junk insurance and standardizing the insurance market SB1522 (Steinberg)

Read the latest update as these bills continue to make progress through the legislature from ally Health Access.