San Mateo City Council Signals Support For Universal Healthcare

SAN MATEO, CA — The San Mateo City Council unanimously passed a resolution supporting universal healthcare during its meeting Tuesday.

San Mateo joined dozens of other California jurisdictions — including South San Francisco, San Jose and Santa Clara County — in supporting a single-payer healthcare system. A bill, Assembly Bill 1400 has been introduced in the state Assembly that would create a single-payer healthcare system in California.

“Our broken health care system is bankrupting our community’s health,” said San Mateo City Councilmember Amourence Lee. “We need California to harness the moral courage to lead on universal health care or we will never recover from this pandemic.”

San Mateo’s resolution, modeled after the city of South San Francisco’s resolution, urged Congress and the state legislature to enact emergency legislation that addresses the three principles related to universal healthcare — coverage, access and elimination of disparities in coverage and health outcomes.

“This expanded health insurance coverage will ensure that all residents of San Mateo will be provided universal healthcare coverage and will have universal access to that coverage,” the resolution read.

The council’s decision drew the support of local activists, including Amanda Minch, who helped rally community support for the resolution.

“It's ridiculous how much we've gotten used to such a broken, unequal healthcare system,” Minch said in a news release. “COVID-19 has really thrown this into stark relief, and this resolution shows that the City of San Mateo believes in a better system.”