South San Francisco council supports single-payer health effort

Single-payer national health insurance, also known as Medicare for All, is defined as a system in which a single public or quasi-public agency is charged with health care financing. Right now in the United States, the delivery of care remains largely in private hands. Under a single-payer system, all U.S. residents would be covered for all services deemed medically necessary. According to 2018 U.S. Census data, 8.5% or 27.5 million people do not have health insurance. Opponents to the single-payer system, however, say it will require tax increases and higher government spending while causing higher patient wait times and reduce services.

Many comments from the public came in asking to vote yes on this resolution.

A South San Francisco resident, Jennifer, shared how a single-payer health care system would have prevented the delay in her recovery and would have saved the state hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“Without the [Affordable Care Act] and getting on Medicaid, I would not have caught my condition in time. I probably would be dead by now,” she said.

She was diagnosed with a rare blood condition and was covered under Medicaid. She was transferred from a doctor who specialized in her type of condition and from a specialty pharmacy because it was out of network. During most of that time, she was on one of the most expensive medications for her condition which runs about $220,000 per year, she said.

After she moved to South San Francisco, she was able to get a better doctor and is now back on the very first medication she was put on after her diagnosis and said it is working.

“That’s five extra years of lost time and wages and at minimum hundreds of thousands of dollars in extra costs to the state that could have been avoided if we had single-payer health care,” she said. “I’m not alone in this kind of experience.”

Other community members, nurses, and advocates shared their stories and support as well.

“The reality is that our current health care system is so broken and profit-driven that many of our patients and your constituents delay seeking care because they cannot afford it,” said a nurse of 12 years at Kaiser Medical Center in South San Francisco.

The pandemic also exacerbated the problems in the health care system and the loss of jobs for many included the loss of coverage, Coleman pointed out.

“I had family members during the pandemic who contracted the COVID-19,” said Denton Murphy, a South San Francisco resident. “Conversations that I had to have with them were reluctance to go to the hospital because they weren’t sure if they could afford it. I don’t think we could make it any more dystopian than what we’re at right now. People are worth more than dollars and cents. I think this resolution helps assert that.”

Vice Mayor Mark Nagales reflected on how they were able to bring a form of health care to the community with the COVID vaccinations including to those without health insurance.

"I’m going to support this resolution because of the fact of what I saw firsthand in terms of the inequities in health care with some of our residents,” he said. “It’s important for us to make a statement to say that we need to step up, not as a city or a state, but also as a federal government. As a country to say that, there are people out there who don’t have health care, who are suffering.”

Mayor Mark Addiego said he thinks this is something to strive for but didn’t believe the resolution is going to be a game-changer on any level for anyone — whether it’s the state or the federal level.

He initially said he was not going to vote for it stating he didn’t know enough of the language of this particular resolution to move forward. But after Coleman shared why this resolution is personal to him, Addiego changed his vote to yes.

“I would like to bring this resolution to vote because I don’t feel comfortable being complicit or being silent in regards to the broken health care system,” Coleman said.

Coleman shared how when he was 5, his father suffered a traumatic injury leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. His mom worked two jobs to make ends meet. He also took care of his father so his mother would not be out of work for too long to still have health insurance.

The City Council voted unanimously to pass the resolution.

Alex Walker, senior field representative for Asemblymember Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, and Jordan Grimes, political director of the Peninsula Young Democrats, also called in to say they are in strong support of this resolution. Coleman mentioned support from the office of state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, and state Sen. Josh Becker, D-San Mateo, as well.

julia@smdailyjournal.com

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