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YOUR ACTION IS NEEDED
Our faith teachings instruct us to love your neighbor as yourself. Further, we read in Leviticus 19, “when a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not wrong him. You shall love him as yourself.” These passages and many more have guided the Multi-faith ACTION Coalition as we consider the need for healthcare for those among us who are denied because of immigration status.
We have as one of our mission statements a belief that access to quality and safe health care services is a basic human right. Our intent is to work with providers of care, elected representatives, government officials and members of the community to realize this mission. To that end, we are in strong support of the work of the Access to Care Stakeholder Group and their plan called, Contra Costa CARES.
A couple of key facts have led to our support for the Contra Costa CARES plan.
▪ It is more humane to provide access to care before health issues escalate and result in emergency room visits, threats to the public health and at the worst, death.
▪ Early healthcare is less expensive and often avoids increased demand on emergency services and increased costs to our healthcare system.
▪ Excluding groups from health coverage based on circumstances like lacking immigration status doesn’t make sense nor does it reflect the collective values of our county.
The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors is being asked to support the program and allocate a minimum of 50% of the resources needed to implement the Contra Costa CARES program. Healthcare providers are part of the Access to Care Stakeholder Group and they will be asked to fund the other 50%. The Board will be voting on the budget on May 12th.
We urge you to join us in supporting Contra Costa CARES, the expansion of health care services for the remaining uninsured regardless of immigration status in the forthcoming county budget.
PLEASE SIGN THE ON LINE PETITION BELOW OR
TO COMMUNICATE DIRECTLY TO THE BOARD:
Send your remarks to:
Members of the Board of Supervisors
Contra Costa County
315 Pine Street
Martinez, CA 94553
Thank you for your efforts to make our community healthier and stronger!
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