When Governor Gavin Newsom undermined the successful grassroots lobby effort to pass AB 279 which would have stalled evictions and reductions of services at California senior homes like the Sakura IFC, it raised the question of who he is working for.
The language of his veto statement seemed like a copy/paste job of arguments from the California Association of Health Facilities (CAHF) who represent the interests of corporate, for-profit operators like Pacifica Companies.
Save Our Seniors Network continues to raise questions which government officials continue to ignore about the rising COVID-19 death counts at Kei-Ai Los Angeles and Kei-Ai South Bay, and have opposed the continued admission of COVID-19 patients until we get confirmation that ongoing mismanagement of the pandemic at these facilities is corrected.
Are the awarding of no-bid contracts to private insurers, such as to the tune of $292 Million to Blue Shield and UnitedHealth related to the financial gain of private senior home operators when granted status of COVID-19 positive receiver sites previously, against the Department of Health’s own protocols?
Newsom granted Blue Shield a no-bid $15 million contract to handle COVID vaccine distribution to counties and hospitals when various county public health depts and hospitals were saying they could handle vaccinations themselves. His recent budget seemed to be intent on starving public health departments in the state.
As long as priority continues to be given to private insurers, with public funds being diverted into bureaucratic for-profit administration costs, we will not receive the adequate, patient-care-centric healthcare that our communities need.
Just another politician turning his back on campaign promises? He has been silent on AB 1400.
I’m tired of politicians saying they support single payer but that it’s too soon, too expensive or someone else’s problem.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) September 22, 2017