At health care summit, Newsom repeats himself
September 3, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO — It’s a phrase that has followed Mayor Gavin Newsom around. And now that he has repeated it while discussing health care, it will likely stick with him — whether he likes it or not.
Newsom first uttered the phrase “whether you like it or not” in May 2008 during a rousing speech at City Hall held right after the state Supreme Court overturned a ban on same-sex marriage. Four months later, Proposition 8 supporters ran a TV ad that used Newsom’s statement to show that the mayor was making acceptance of same-sex marriage on Californians mandatory.
Newsom publicly repeated the phrase Wednesday while pitching a passionate argument during a lengthy speech for national health care reform at a summit in Mission Bay.
Before saying it, the mayor admitted revisiting the phrase would be at his peril (Newsom was directly addressing how The City is “providing [health] care regardless of immigration status”).
It was a bold and impassioned speech for Newsom, who faced a packed house of top medical, business and city officials, and he was caught up in a no-holds-barred promotion of the nation’s need for a public health insurance option.
“We do not have health care reform” without a public option, Newsom said.
He spoke for nearly 30 minutes during the 3½-hour summit, which was put on by the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and featured other prominent speakers, including city Health Department chief Mitch Katz, UCSF Medical Center CEO Mark Laret, chamber President and CEO Steve Falk and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Newsom spent a lot of time promoting Healthy San Francisco, The City’s pioneering universal health care program. San Francisco’s public option has worked, he said, and has not replaced the American flag at City Hall with one that is Canadian.
The mayor also hurled potshots at Fox News for its health reform coverage and at former Mayor Willie Brown for last year criticizing Newsom’s idea to put a vegetable garden in City Hall that could help feed the poor and hungry.
Newsom reminded the summit — Brown wasn’t attending the conference — that the Obama administration followed The City’s lead by planting a similar garden at the White House.
Newsom, however, also said discussions on present-day health care reform began under the Brown administration.
maldax@sfexaminer.com
