Local activists from throughout Northern California joined thousands of fellow Californians in mid-April in Sacramento to launch a campaign for children’s health coverage. The campaign has the backing of faith-based community organizations throughout the state.

During a press conference held at the Capitol on April 13, Assemblywoman Wilma Chan (D-Oakland) and Senator Martha Escutia (D-Norwalk) presented a bill that would provide affordable health insurance coverage for all children living in California.

The California Healthy Kids legislation, SB 437 and AB 722, provides for a multi-year plan that would enhance current publicly-funded state programs, such as Healthy Families and Medi-Cal for Children, making it easier for families not insured to enroll and keep their children covered.

The legislation is jointly sponsored by the PICO California community organizing network and the 100% Campaign, a coalition of children’s advocacy organizations. The Sacramento area affiliates of PICO are Sacramento Area Congregations Together and Northern Valley Sponsoring Committee. Catholic parishes in the diocese are active in both community organizations.

Jim Keddy, director of the PICO California Project and Sacramento Area Congregations Together, said there is “a groundswell of support” from faith communities and families striving to make coverage for all California children a reality.

“Thousands of Californians from all walks of life support the children of this state,” Keddy said.

Chan said many children without access to health insurance end up in the emergency room with a life threatening situation that is both catastrophic for the child and costly for the state.

“This bill is not only essential to keep our children healthy, but it is a common sense approach at a time when we’re having budget deficits,” she said.

In January, the Center for Health Policy Research at the University of California at Los Angeles released data showing that nearly nine million of California’s 10 million children have health insurance.

Among those denied coverage was Nancy Marquez, 18, a student at San Francisco State University, who spoke emotionally at the press conference of her experience as an immigrant to California from Mexico.

“I can honestly say I truly believe most of the pets of people in this room probably received better medical care than I have. I couldn’t afford to get sick,” she said. “I think that it is nothing but the grace of God that got me here today.”

More than 4,000 people from throughout California attended a town hall meeting on children’s health held the evening of April 13 at the Sacramento Convention Center.

Sacramento ACT organizer Nate Ortiz was among those from parishes in the Sacramento Diocese.

A member of St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Sacramento, Ortiz has been involved in PICO’s effort to inform parishioners about free and low cost health insurance currently available with MediCal, Healthy Families and Kaiser Permanente’s Child Health Plan.

“The community that most needs this information is the Hispanic community,” said Ortiz, who has provided information on low-cost insurance plans at St. Charles Borromeo’s Spanish Masses this month. “Some of the people we’ve talked to may work for minimum wage or have an employer who doesn’t offer health insurance,” he said.

Mireya Cortez, a member of St. Joseph Parish in Sacramento, is among those struggling to provide for the health care needs of her children, ages 13 and 15. She and her husband, who have full-time jobs earning minimum wage, were born in Mexico. Cortez, who has had glaucoma since the age of seven, fears Medi-Cal will be inadequate to cover her children who may inherit the eye disease.

“I don’t understand how a poor country like Mexico can provide health care and in a rich country like the United States you have to be in an emergency situation to be attended by a doctor,” she said.

Alberto Velazquez, lead organizer of Northern Valley Sponsoring Committee, has been involved since January in conducting health care surveys with members of the Latino community at parishes in Colusa, Arbuckle, Williams, Yuba City, Maxwell and Willows.

“The surveys indicated that more than 55 percent of nearly 1,000 families surveyed don’t have health insurance,” Velazquez said. “Many had a lot of serious health issues such as cancer, diabetes and HIV/AIDS.”

Teleen Santillan has a very personal reason for joining in Northern Valley Sponsoring Committee’s efforts supporting statewide affordable health insurance coverage for children. Santillan lives in Chico and works as an adult education teacher in Arbuckle. The eldest of her six children, Sipriano, 18, has a congenital heart condition and is on Supplemental Security Income and limited medical coverage.

Santillan said that finding appropriate cardiac care for Sipriano is a battle she can’t afford to lose.

“I can’t take being told my son is going to die every year,” she said. “We need to change this system where you can’t get (health care) unless you have hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

SB 437 and AB 722 are both currently pending in the Appropriations Committees of their respective houses.

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