Temple Beth El
3:00 to 4:00 PM
Those present were: Kathy Ruiz Goldenkranz, Randy Pozos, Dan Olivieri, Randa Johnson, Carol Keeney, Chai Bryce, Kathybelle Barlow, and Annie Willis. The purpose of the meeting was to begin a conversation about health issues for the Stand Up and Take Charge campaign and to follow up on previous activities and conversations. We discussed several issues:
1. Randa Johnson and Carol Keeney presented their idea to help students get health insurance.There are large numbers of students in schools in Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties who could be enrolled in health insurance programs if districts and school sites would use a process similar to the one used by the Santa Cruz City Schools. Whenever a student enrolls there is an additional check box on the emergency contact information asking the parents if they want information on health care insurance for their child. This practice could be spread throughout the region.
2. We also talked about sharing stories about access to health care from COPA members on the COPA web site http://www.copa-iaf.org.
3. Kathybelle Barlow brought up the problem of the brief amount of time doctors have with patients and the potential for harmful interaction between prescription medications.
4. Chai Bryce discussed the challenge of getting health insurance for older persons or people with pre-existing conditions at a reasonable price. She would like to explore the possibilities of some type of group insurance program through COPA.
5. Annie Willis recommended that we arrange for a visit with people from our sister organization LA1 in Los Angeles since they appear to have a project that uses county facilities to support a community insurance system of some type.
The next meeting of the Health Care Team will be Tuesday, January 10 from 6:30 – 8:00 PM at Temple Beth El. We will do our best to have brief summary documents available about the issues prior to the meeting.
I have attached a draft agenda. Please feel free to make and comments or suggestions. Our goal is to have a set of issues ready for the Stand Up and Take Charge campaign by mid-February.
