Town Hall on Healthcare

The Town Hall with Congressman Mark DeSaulnier was hosted by #OneContraCosta at the First Christian Church of Concord from 10:30am to 12 noon on Saturday, January 28th, 2017. There were approximately 250 to 300 people present.

Mariana Moore, Director, Ensuring Opportunity Campaign to End Poverty, was the moderator and Congressman George Miller, Ret., Congressman Mark DeSaulnier and Contra Costa County Supervisor Karen Mitchoff, District !V spoke for about 5 minutes each at the start.

Interesting stats:

20 million people will lose healthcare if the ACA is repealed without a replacement; 5 million (25% of total) in California.

1 in 4 people in California live in poverty which truly shocked the audience.

2.6 million people will lose their jobs if ACA is repealed; 209,000 in California.

California receives $9 million for its healthcare exchange.

There has been a bill introduced in the House by two Republican congressman, the Cassidy-Collins bill, which allows states to keep the ACA with the federal funding if they so choose. They would have to manage it themselves. I assume without reading the bill that it means there would be no federal exchange. The bill is being called the Healthcare States Rights bill by some.

Healthcare costs have come down in spite of what we have heard by the conservation media.

There was a panel after the talks with both Congressman, Supervisor Mitchoff, Dr. William Walker from Contra Costa Health Services and Yasmin Peled from Health Access, California.

The one question thread through all the questions was "What can we do?" Congressman Miller was emphatic. Organize, organize and organize. Stay informed. Continue to call legislators even if they are supportive; hold them accountable. Ask people you know in districts and states that have conservative congress people to call every day. Protests are good but other actions are necessary also and are sometimes more effective.

One main argument is "Why should I have to pay for healthcare for others, especially undocumented workers/immigrants?" Supervisor Mitchoff said that the best rebuttal is "Would you want to be standing next to someone on BART or at the store that is ill with a communicable disease and the illness could have been prevented if they had care?"

Finally, Health Access, California's Health Consumer Advocacy Coalition, is collecting healthcare stores at www.surveymonkey.com/r/ShareYourACAStory. They really want lots and lots of stories.

One last thing. . .There are only two days left for people to sign up for Covered California, www.coveredca.com. Ask everyone to do so even if they think it will be repealed. The more that signup, the harder it will be to repeal it.