HEALTH CARE ACCESS: Update

Trinity Episcopal Cathedral and the ACT federated New Voices Committee are the two principal entities involved in health care organizing.  Additionally at least three members of the ACT board have been heavily involved in the on-going Sacramento Health Care Improvement Project (SHIP), which has had a substantial impact on health care policy in Sacramento County.

In February, 5 Trinity leaders collected over 150 surveys that showed concerns about the health care system. 69% of the survey responders chose “affordable health care for all” as the most important health care issue, with “cost of insurance” being the second priority concern--despite the fact that the majority of the congregation has health insurance. Trinity leaders will conduct research meetings on county and state health care policy in the next 4 months.  On March 24, ACT met with Doris Matsui (D-CA4) staff to discuss comprehensive health reform.  This meeting with Matsui was Trinity’s first research meeting about health care.

Also in February, three ACT board members testified in front of the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors to oppose a pennywise and pound foolish cut to health care for persons lacking proof of citizenship.  They testified against a new rule imposed to cut costs, saying that it will affect more than undocumented immigrant citizens, and that it posed a threat to public health with regard to communicable diseases.

The ACT Executive Director and three ACT board members were heavily involved in the Sacramento Health Care Improvement Project (SHIP) throughout 2008 and 2009.  ACT was involved on the coalition as the community input, sitting together with county officials, hospital representatives from Kaiser, Health Care West, Mercy and Sutter.  The ACT director was co-chair of the coaltion and ACT board members served on the steering committee.  They also served on the three sub-committees regarding the failure of the clinic system, the broken system of care for the uninsured population, and a dental care work group.  SHIP put out a report in 2008 that asserted that the general health clinic system was broken within the county, that Sacramento County doesn’t have enough capacity to deal with people who need it, and that this population needs dental care. They also asserted that there was a failure of communication between hospitals and clinics and that there were significant transportation concerns for people trying to get to appointments.

The SHIP group has been credited for helping to get an organized group of clinics called “The Effort” underway by helping it to achieve federal “FQHC” status.

Members of the ACT board have also been meeting monthly since December, 2008 with the Sacramento Children’s Dental Task Force to develop adequate strategies to address the dental concerns surfaced by the SHIP subcommittee on dental care.

5 ACT leaders consistently attend PICO California steering committee meetings every two months where state health issues are discussed.

7 ACT leaders and staff attended a state-level research meeting with other health partners to learn about what the passage of CHIPRA means for California on February 17 sponsored by the 100% Campaign and the California SCHIP workgroup.

On November 17-19 three ACT leaders and an organizer traveled to Washington D.C. with 175 PICO clergy and community leaders to press for action to get CHIPRA passed, help families weather the economic crisis and rebuild the economy on a strong foundation.  PICO members blanketed Capitol Hill, holding more than 100 meetings with Members of Congress, federal agencies, policy groups, and senior Obama Transition Staff, including Melody Barnes, co-director of domestic agency review for the Obama Transition (now the White House Chief Domestic Policy Advisor), to make sure that the priorities of communities were front and center in the transition.

Our Sacramento delegation also met with Senate Finance Committee Staff Director, Russ Sullivan, Senior Health Staff for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell about the fate of SCHIP legislation and the road to comprehensive health reform.

On March 11-13 four more ACT leaders and an organizer traveled to Washington D.C. to celebrate the passage of CHIPRA and to conduct further research into the landscape of comprehensive health care reform.  The ACT delegation met with Congressman Dan Lungren (R-CA3) to discuss with him his opposition to the passage of CHIPRA and to learn how his office is positioning itself in the upcoming health care debate.  Congressman Lungren does not support the current health care actions being drafted by Congress and the Obama Administration.