This is it! AB 52 is going to the full Senate. We need a simple majority -- 21 votes. We can't expect any Republican votes. We have 25 Democrats -- that means that we can lose no more than 4 of them. We need 84% of the caucus.
As I discussed in a previous post, the bill's principal sponsor, Assemblyman Mike Feuer, has said that he is "working with Senate Democrats on amendments that could help the bill win passage."
This is where I throw cynicism to the wayside. At some point, you have to trust the people who have brought you this far to make the decisions necessary for the bill to pass. Our role -- as the opponents of the health insurance industry that is, no doubt, threatening Senators with all manner of terrible consequences -- is simple: to soften the resolve of those who want to oppose AB 52. We do this with our calls, with our letters, with our e-mails, with our faxes. By making this vote the big issue that it deserves to be, we make them realize that we aren't going to forget what they do here. What happens here may ruin their political careers, if they fail to come through for us. We need to let them know that.
So -- 25 calls apiece, coming up. As usual. calling your own Rep is the most important thing you can do -- but it's worth calling all of the Democrats.
Today's statement from Dave Jones is below the jump. The actual whipping people here to call -- look, I didn't come up with the name -- begins tomorrow.
This is the e-mail that Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones sent out to supporters today:
Thanks to your calls, emails and letters in support of Assembly Bill 52, one of the most important bills of the year cleared a major hurdle at the end of last week. In a 6-3 vote, AB 52 (Feuer and Huffman) successfully passed the Senate Appropriations Committee. This was a tremendous victory in getting the bill one step closer to passage.
Now, with the bill on the Senate Floor, we need your help now more than ever.
During my time in the Legislature, I authored the bill to give the Insurance Commissioner the authority to reject excessive health insurance rates three times. Last year, the bill got further in the process than the previous years - to the Senate Floor, the same place we find ourselves now. It failed on the Senate Floor the final night of session - just a few votes short of getting to the Governor's desk.
It is now time to finally pass this important consumer protection measure. Today, we know that...
Proposition 103, which gave the Insurance Commissioner the authority to reject excessive rates for auto and homeowners insurance, has saved consumers billions of dollars in excessive auto and home insurance premiums.
Health insurance premiums have been rising dramatically year after year, far outpacing the increases in medical inflation and wages.
The number of uninsured Californians has risen from 6 million to 8 million since I first authored the bill in 2007.
And, to date, 34 other states have already established this authority to reject excessive health insurance rates hikes.
We must also remember that 2014 is quickly approaching. This is the year when Americans will be required by law to purchase health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. California's Insurance Commissioner and the Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) need the authority to reject excessive rate hikes now. Senator Dianne Feinstein called this authority a "missing piece of federal health care reform." Senators Feinstein and Boxer, the California Democratic Congressional Delegation and the California Democratic Party all support AB 52, as do consumer and healthcare organizations, labor unions and small business organizations.
We now ask for your help as we fight for the bill's successful passage on the Senate Floor. Please start calling Senators TODAY and urge them to vote for AB 52. Click here for a listing of all Senators and their phone numbers.
We are so close to making this critical change to prevent excessive health insurance premiums. Thank you for your unrelenting support.
We'll be collecting intelligence information in comments to future diaries as we progress.
By the way, this isn't the final hurdle we'll fact -- it also has to make it past the Governor, which is not yet a given -- but we'll have plenty to say to him when the time comes.