Measure A supporters campaign at church
Proposal would increase sales tax in Alameda County to help pay for health care
By Ben Aguirre Jr., STAFF WRITER, The Oakland Tribune
Article Last Updated: Monday, February 23, 2004 - 4:50:08 AM PST

SAN LEANDRO -- If County Supervisor Alice Lai-Bitker's early polls on Measure A are accurate, consumers in the county will soon be paying an extra half-cent sales tax.

But that doesn't mean advocates of the measure will stop campaigning before the March 2 election.

Lai-Bitker and two doctors were invited to St. Leander's Church in San Leandro on Sunday to discuss the measure, said Gina Martinez, executive director for Congregations Organizing for Renewal.

Measure A, which calls for a 0.5 percent increase in sales tax throughout the county to help pay for health care, needs a two-thirds majority vote to pass.

"Measure A will help stabilize the health care in this county," Lai-Bitker told the audience at the church's Ryan O'Connell Hall. She noted that Alameda County's health care is in crisis because of rising industry costs and an increase in demand for services.

Without the tax measure, she said, trauma centers like Highland Hospital in Oakland, which sees some 24,000 people come through its doors each year, may have to close down or cut back on the services offered to patients, she said.

Scaling back on services, Lai-Bitker said, means trauma patients may have to be diverted to other hospitals, such as Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, a trauma center that serves about 17,000 trauma patients each year.

Dr. Ron Adler, who used to work at Highland Hospital and now volunteers at a clinic in Berkeley, said the state of the county's health care is unlike anything he has seen before.

"This crisis is for real," he said. "Without this money, I don't see how the health care system will survive."

He said that if the ballot measure fails, it would cause a chain reaction at hospitals throughout the county, increasing patient wait times, declining services and could ultimately cost lives.

Adler, who has been a doctor for 27 years, said that while most trauma patients in northern Alameda County are taken to Highland, some may have to be diverted to other hospitals.

In addition, he said, "The politicians won't say this, but without this initiative, Highland could close."

Alameda County Medical Officer Dr. Tony Iton also spoke Sunday about the measure. He posed a question to the crowd about the type of life they want to see.

"What kind of society do we want to have? Do we want health care for those who are privileged or do we want a society where health care is a fundamental human right?"

The audience applauded the latter.

Iton said that about 140,000 adults in the county don't have medical insurance because their employers may have cut it, a parent can't afford it, or they are unemployed.

The crisis, Iton said, isn't the fault of county politicians. He said that federal and state cuts over time have caused the problem.

"Our governor, when he looks for cuts, goes straight for health care and Medicare," Iton said. "The feds aren't going to help us. The state isn't going to help us. So we can only rely on out county supervisors."

He told the crowd that the measure will pass if they each called 10 registered voters they know and tell them about the measure.

Gina Martinez said that Congregations Organizing for Renewal decided to have the forum after the grassroots organization polled churchgoers at St. Leander's and found that nearly a quarter of them didn't have health insurance.

In addition, she said much of the congregation at St. Leander's is Spanish-speaking and needed to hear about the issue. As a result, Sunday's forum, which drew about 125 people, was translated into Spanish.