Health4All In CCC
Our faith voices are heard!
Many of you answered our calls for action regarding the initiative to bring health care to all residents of Contra Costa County and your message of moral responsibility was heard. On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors passed Contra Costa Cares. Thank you for your action!
The plan approved by the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors allocates $500,000 to Contra Costa CARES (three local hospital systems will match this amount). This program will provide preventive health care for 3,000 undocumented immigrant residents of our County. The measure passed with the needed 4 votes; Supervisor Anderson was the one vote against the program. To read more about this issue refer to these articles in the Contra Costa Times and KQED:
KQED: http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2015/09/22/contra-costa-restores-health-care-for-undocumented-adults/ -
Contra Costa Times: http://www.contracostatimes.com/breaking-news/ci_28859989/contra-costa-again-offer-health-coverage-undocumented
The Health Task Force of the Multi-faith ACTION Coalition targeted this as their main action of the last few months and is very proud to have been a partner in this successful vote. Members of MFAC participated in advocacy planning phone meetings, met in-person with county Supervisors, signed post cards and online petitions, sent letters of support and attended BOS meetings where they submitted statements in support of Contra Costa Cares. A huge thank you to everyone who supported this successful effort. We were told over and over that our voice matters and we are being heard.
The effort to support health care for immigrants is unfortunately not over. The program is considered a pilot and is only funded for one year at this point. Ongoing state and federal funds will be sought to continue and hopefully expand the program. If you are interested in working on this or other issues of health access affecting Contra Costa residents, please contact April Wise (aprilwise@earthlink.net), the chairperson of the Health Task Force.
Sincerely,
Pat Reyes
Steering Committee member
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