Doctors, nurses rally around Measure A
Ballot initiative would levy tax to support county hospitals
By Rebecca Vesely, STAFF WRITER, The Oakland Tribune
Article Last Updated: Monday, February 16, 2004 - 3:51:28 AM PST

On a recent sunny Saturday morning in East Oakland, about 20 doctors and nurses -- many in their hospital scrubs and white lab coats -- gathered at a tiny storefront to hit the streets in support of a countywide half-cent sales tax for health care.

With the March 2 vote fast approaching, physicians and nurses are the most visible faces in the campaign for the tax initiative -- dubbed Measure A. They are hosting parties, phoning colleagues, appearing at town hall meetings and pounding the pavement armed with campaign literature.

"This is Highland Hospital's date with destiny," Dr. Mini Swift, chief resident at Highland's emergency department, told her colleagues as they gathered up handfuls of buttons and stacks of fliers.

Measure A would raise an estimated $90 million a year for health services in the county, with 75 percent of those funds earmarked for the Alameda County Medical Center, a network of hospitals and clinics including Highland Hospital, which primarily serves the poor.

The Yes on Measure A campaign has raised nearly $400,000, with more than $100,000 coming from physicians' pockets, said campaign manager Raymond Erlich. It's a small budget for a countywide campaign. About 25 percent will be spent on a cable television commercial; the rest will go to direct mail and phone banking.

Putting doctors and other health care workers on the front lines of the campaign is a big part of the strategy to win votes, Erlich said.

"It's totally appropriate to have doctors persuading voters to support the measure," he said. "They are the ones who see these patients and know what will happen if the measure doesn't pass."

Doctors Dan and Linda Price -- a married couple who both work at Highland -- brought their two young children with them to canvass for Measure A.

"The safety net we provide for people in Alameda County is critical," said Dan Price, an emergency room physician. "Everyone is one car crash away from ending up at Highland."

The Prices came to Highland three years ago from Portland, Ore., after he heard a lecture on Highland, which has one of the top ER residency programs in the country.

"I came home and said, 'Honey, Highland's my dream job, let's move to Oakland,'" he said.

Linda Price was bored with her private obstetrics practice, so she too signed up to work at Highland.

"The patients are so grateful," she said. "In private practice, I may have gotten a gift for delivering a baby, but here, people can't afford that so I'll get a hug from them instead. That means everything to me."

Physicians are either running or participating in the 50 or so scheduled events for Measure A throughout the county over the next few weeks.

The Alameda-Contra Costa County Medical Association, which has endorsed the measure, wrote a sample letter of support for its members to sign and circulate to patients.

There is no organized opposition to Measure A, though SEIU Local 250, representing 800 health care workers at the medical center, including Highland, is not supporting the measure because of concerns about mismanagement.

Dr. Lance Montauk, an ER physician at Alta Bates and Kaiser Oakland hospitals who wrote the ballot argument against Measure A, said mismanagement by the county Board of Supervisors is to blame for the medical center's $71 million deficit. Supporting the measure is akin to rewarding bad behavior.

"If someone is doing a really bad job you don't pat them on the head and say, 'There, there, you've done a bad job and here is more money to do it,'" Montauk said.

Dr. Floyd Huen, the medical director of LifeLong Medical Care, a Berkeley clinic, said the challenge in persuading physicians to open their checkbooks to support Measure A is a concern that Highland Hospital has been mismanaged.

"Many audits have been done," Huen said. "This is the same crisis that is hitting Los Angeles County. Is there mismanagement at all these hospitals? No. We're really suffering from systemic problems."

Measure A requires a two-thirds majority to pass -- a big challenge on a small budget and tight timeline. And many physicians said voters they spoke to had not heard about the tax initiative.

"We have to do this by calling friends and family and having a chain reaction," said Rose Frigo, a nurse anesthetist at Highland.

Contact Rebecca Vesely at rvesely@angnewspapers.com.