Help Save Alameda County’s Public Hospitals and Clinics

Come to the special meeting of the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, Nov. 25 at 10am, 1221 Oak St., Oakland, 5th floor and voice your insistence on a fully-funded county medical center in order to meet the needs of tens of thousands of low-income and uninsured residents. Please take a few moments to help save Alameda County’s public hospitals and clinics – Everyone’s health care depends on it! Alameda County faces the greatest crisis in its history. Due to unprecedented Federal and State budget deficits, funding cuts and exploding health care costs, ACMC, like most health care safety net systems across the country, is facing severe financial problems. As a result, the Medical Center was forced to close two primary clinics and reduce medical services. These closures displaced tens of thousands of patients and resulted in dramatic increases in emergency room visits throughout the county. The Board of Supervisors will vote on Tuesday, November 25th whether or not to place a put a sales tax measure on the March 2004 ballot in order to address the massive financial crisis of ACMC. Help make sure they place a measure on the ballot that will fully-fund ACMC. Alameda County\\\\\\\'s largest safety net health system, Alameda County Medical Center (ACMC) consists of Highland and Fairmont hospitals, several outpatient clinics, skilled nursing and psychiatric facilities and other essential services. ACMC: * Serves over 125,000 patients per year, 80% of whom are low-income, and half who are either under or uninsured; * Handles over HALF of the county’s adult trauma needs with the busiest emergency room in the East Bay, seeing on average over 155 patients per day; * Operates more than 50 health care clinic services ranging from dentistry and family practice to obstetrics and gynecology. Please take a few moments to help save Alameda County’s public hospitals and clinics -- EVERYONE’s Health Care Depends on it! WHAT YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW! 1) Call or email the Supervisors TODAY and tell them to do the right thing - place a measure on the March 2004 ballot to fully fund the Medical Center and the rest of the healthcare safety net. Dist. 1: Scott Haggerty, (510) 272-6691, district1@acgov.org Dist. 2: Gail Steele, (510) 272-6692, dist2@acgov.org Dist. 3: Alice Lai-Bitker, (510) 272-6693, BOSdist3@acgov.org Dist. 4: Nate Miley, (510) 272-6694, BOSdist4@acgov.org Dist. 5: Keith Carson, (510) 272-6695, dist5@acgov.org 2) Send letters to the editors TODAY to, at least, the Oakland Tribune and the SF Chronicle. Please submit letters to: triblet@angnewspapers.com and letters@sfchronicle.com. * Sample letter for your review offered below. 3) Come to the special meeting of the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, Nov. 25 at 10am, 1221 Oak St., Oakland, 5th floor and add your voice to insist on a fully-funded county medical center in order to meet the needs of tens of thousands of low-income and uninsured residents. 4) Forward this email TODAY to your co-workers, friends and family members, and ask them to do the same. 5) Download the informational, half-sheet flyer that we are distributing at the Medical Center, to union members and community residents. Please share it with your co-workers, friends, family, neighbors, and activist network. Please contact us for more information or to get involoved. Thank you! Vote Health 510-653-1526 or info@votehealth.net http://www.votehealth.net *********************************************************** Sample Letter to the Editor Healthcare in Alameda County faces the greatest crisis in its history. The recent closure of two major clinics and proposed additional cuts in services will further reduce access to tens of thousands of county residents in need of medical care. To stop the financial hemorrhaging, the County Board of Supervisors is considering on November 25 a tax measure for the March 2004 ballot which would allocate significant funding for the County\\\\\\\'s public hospitals and clinics. We insist that at least 80% of the new funds go to support these services, with the balance being directed towards other safety net providers. Even if readers have health insurance, they too will be impacted if the County Medical Center continues to downsize and cut services. Already patients from the two clinics closed last summer are flooding private hospital emergency rooms and clinics. Until we have health care for all, we should support a ballot measure to stabilize funding for Alameda County\\\\\\\'s public hospitals and clinics. We need to tell the Supervisors to fully fund the Medical Center on November 25 at their special meeting, 1221 Oak St. in Oakland. www.votehealth.net