"CALA" (California Alliance for Legislative Action) is a coalition of medical students, pre-medical and other health professional students who support Sen Kuehl's SB 840, legislation that creates the framework for all Californians to have predictably affordable health insurance that is automatic & guaranteed, high quality & comprehensive.

CALA began in the summer of 2005, primarily as an organizing body for the first-ever, statewide medical student Lobby Day (Jan 2006) in Sacramento. Over 125 students from 7 medical schools held a raucous rally on the steps of the Capitol, then spent the afternoon meeting with Legislators; the event yielded 2 additional co-sponsors for the bill. In 2007, the coalition expanded to include pre-medical and other health profession students; over 250 students rallied and lobbied.

CALA members demand that all Californians have health insurance that is not only predictably affordable, but also automatic & guaranteed, high quality & comprehensive; a world where the term "UNinsured" no longer exists; where unpaid medical bills are not the number one cause of personal bankruptcy; and where "healthcare" is not the major domestic concern on people's minds. As the future of healthcare delivery, we demand the creation of a sane and humane health finance infrastructure that focuses on primary and preventive care, not private profits of shareholders. SB840 would do just that - all while saving Californians billions of dollars each year (see Lewin Group Report).

While passage of SB 840 remains our primary mission, CALA members also support legislation that expands healthcare access towards an end-goal of universal insurance coverage; rationally addresses the major cost-drivers responsible for the burgeoning cost of healthcare; preserves patients' rights in choosing physicians; and allows healthcare professionals to perform their duties of patient care.

As well, CALA acknowledges a responsibility to catalyze and inspire lifelong political activism among future healthcare professionals; the experience of Lobby Day teaches CALA members that our visiting with politicians -- local, state or federal -- can be as critical a component of patient care as any clinical skills we hone in the hospital.

Now in its third year, Lobby Day is CALA's annual one-day event in Sacramento that serves as the voice of future healthcare professionals who see healthcare as a human right, who believe health insurance must be automatic and guaranteed for all Californians, and who understand that the profit motive must be supplanted by the goal of improving the health of the population.

The goals of Lobby Day are two-fold: to catalyze the passage of SB 840, and to inspire medical and other pre-healthcare students to become active in healthcare legislation.

On January 28, 2008, hundreds of medical, pre-medical, and other professional health students will be going to Sacramento to demand legitimate and true reform, in the form of SB 840, which creates the fundamental framework to support the improved health of the entire population, while saving California billions of dollars per year!