UNAC/UHCP supports the enactment of AB 109 (Knox – D) requiring employers who provide employee sick leave to permit an employee to use sick leave to attend to the illness of a child, parent, or spouse of the employee.
2001
SB 1197 (Romero – D) is presented to strengthen the provisions of AB 109 (Knox) but is vetoed. The following year with SB 1471 (Romero – D), additional protections for employees using sick leave to care for a sick family member were enacted.
2002
UNAC/UHCP is an early advocate of the Family Leave Act, which is finally enacted by SB 1661 (Kuehl- D). SB 1661 extends temporary disability benefits to workers for up to six weeks who stay home to care for a seriously ill family member or to bond with a new child.
2003
UNAC/UHCP fights for the passage of SB 2 (Burton – D) -later becoming Proposition 76 which requires employers to provide health insurance to nearly all California workers and their families. Although defeated in a referendum vote, the provisions of SB 2 become the foundation of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s (R) 2007 proposal.
2004
UNAC/UHCP supports SB 921(Kuehl- D) a proposed single payer health care insurance system for California. The bill passes the Senate but does not muster enough votes to get out of the Assembly.
UNAC/UHCP also drafts and sponsors successful legislation AB 254 (Montanez – D) that provides senior retirees with the same access as non-seniors to low cost continuation health care coverage under federal HIPAA law (The Health Insurance and Portability Access Act).
2005
UNAC/UHCP once again supports Senator Kuehl’s (D) legislation to create a system of single-payer health care coverage (SB 840). The bill passes in the Legislature but is vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger (R).
2007
Governor Schwarzenegger (R), after vetoing a democratic healthcare reform bill, proposes the Health Care Security and Cost Reduction Act. In the early days of 2008, Speaker Fabian Nunez (D) and several key organizations join the Governor in an attempt to solve this healthcare reform impasse. UNAC and SEIU are the only nurses and healthcare unions to support the effort. Unfortunately, the effort stalls under increased political and legislative opposition.
2008
SB 840, a single-payer healthcare bill, is introduced for the third and final time. UNAC/UHCP and other organizations support the legislation, despite Governor Schwarzenegger’s (R)commitment to veto any “single-payer” legislation.
