Churches rally for Measure A
to protect health care for poor
By Barbara Erickson, Associate editor The Catholic Voice
FEBRUARY 9, 2004

Local organizers at St. Leander Parish in San Leandro have taken up the battle to pass Measure A, an initiative to preserve the health care system for uninsured residents of Alameda County. Health services in the county are already in crisis and facing additional cuts under the proposed state budget.

To highlight this initiative, a group of parishioners is sponsoring a forum after the 11 a.m. Mass on Feb. 22 to get the word out to the community. Under the auspices of Congregations Organizing for Renewal, a coalition of churches that addresses the needs of southern Alameda County, the forum will feature local elected officials, refreshments, music, presentations by a doctor and a public health nurse and a video.

According to COR director Gina Martinez, leaders in the coalition discovered the critical need for health care even before Measure A was drafted. This was evident in surveys of St. Leander parishioners, especially the Spanish-speaking, Martinez said, where about 70 percent of those questioned said that they or at least one of their children lacked insurance.

"That¹s what made it compelling to us to make sure that these services remain available to people," said Martinez. "As we¹ve become more and more involved in the campaign, we¹ve realized just how urgent it is."

Measure A would add one half of one percent to the sales tax within the county in order to keep the Alameda County Medical Center afloat. The center includes Highland Hospital, its emergency services and on-site clinics, Fairmont Hospital, the John George Psychiatric facility and outpatient clinics in Oakland, Newark and Hayward.

The medical center is already in financial crisis, with an estimated $71.6 million deficit for the 2003-2004 fiscal year. This is due to a decrease in federal and state funding, an increasing number of uninsured patients and higher costs. Between 1995 and 2001 in California, the number of uninsured patients at county hospitals increased by 13.3 percent, while this population decreased by 12.8 percent at non-public hospitals.

These facts are highlighted in a report by the California Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems titled "On the Brink," which states, "No business can be expected to remain financially viable when an ever-increasing number of its customers cannot pay."

Nancy Craig, a county public health nurse since 1968 and a parishioner at St. Leander, said two clinics where she used to work as a nurse practitioner have both been closed in an effort to cut costs, and staff have been laid off. Patients are forced to wait much longer for appointments, she said, and she worries that many will simply go without medical care until they face an emergency.

"That usually means that they wind up in an emergency room needing a higher level of care," Craig said. Most of these patients are low income and have no health insurance. "Many are recently unemployed," she said, or they are working without benefits, often in part-time and minimum wage jobs. This group has grown in recent years.

"There is nowhere else to go," said Craig, who is active in the St. Leander social justice committee and COR. "If something happens to the clinics, they¹ll all wind up at Highland in the emergency room."

The Alameda County Medical Center provides inpatient and outpatient care 24 hours a day in more than 40 different primary and specialty services, treating emergency traumas, and psychiatric, dental, surgical, and internal medical cases, among others. From January through November last year the center provided more than 48,000 patient bed days; handled more than 30,000 medical cases and took care of more than 115,000 patient visits to its clinics.

Since many patients receiving these services are uninsured, the center finds itself providing $31 million annually in uncompensated charity care. It provides 80 percent of the hospital-based uncompensated care in the county, where, at any given time, 12 to 16 percent of the residents are without insurance.

The medical center is also an accredited teaching and training facility in several specialties.

Measure A would raise an estimated $90 million annually, with 75 percent of the revenue going to the Alameda County Medical Center and 25 percent to various hospitals, clinics and community-based health care organizations. A citizens oversight committee would monitor how the tax money is spent.

The measure needs a two-thirds vote of the electorate to pass, and if approved on the March 2 ballot, tax collection would begin on July 1, 2004 and end on June 30, 2019.

Martinez said that a loss of medical center services would affect not only those who rely on them for health care, but also many members of the community who work at the center and in the health professions.

The COR initiative to support Measure A, she said, is not simply a political issue. "We¹re trying to ground it in our faith," she said, "as we always do." She cited a document on health care prepared by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which states that the right to health care "flows from the sanctity of human life and the dignity that belongs to all human persons."

The statement continues, "Special attention should be given to meeting the basic health needs of the poor. With increasingly limited resources in the economy, it is the basic rights of the poor that are frequently threatened first."