Project Inform cited in the press

 

Statewide Health Care, Community and Business Leaders Criticize Governor’s Use of Medi-Cal Patients and the Poor as Bargaining Chips in California Rx Proposal

SOURCE: Latino Community Diabetes Council of
Los Angeles, August 24, 2006
(Project Inform in bold below as signer)

Governor’s Proposed Program Will Widen Health Disparities and Restrict Patient Access for State's Most Vulnerable Population

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Aug. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Health care, community and business leaders from throughout California today blasted Gov. Schwarzenegger’s prescription drug proposal, warning that the plan uses the state’s most vulnerable population as a bargaining chip in political negotiations and threatens to increase existing health disparities and restricts access to medications for some of California’s poorest and sickest patients, according to the Latino Community Diabetes Council of Los Angeles If the Governor's plan is enacted, these leaders warned, many Californians will be left without access to their much-needed medicines or forced to substitute their current drugs for older and potentially less-effective medications.

“We need to voice the other side of the story, the side that always forgets the poor and most vulnerable,” said Angela Gilliard, legislative advocate for the Western Center on Law and Poverty. We’re here to oppose the “Medi-Cal Hammer,” in the Governor’s plan, which may result in the removal of critical and important medicines from the Medi-Cal program. “If the Legislature and Governor think the hammer is such a great idea for reigning in pharmaceutical costs, and if they insist it won't have an adverse impact on the poor,” Ms. Gilliard added, “then why don't they apply the hammer to the state's public retirement system?”

“This plan is holding the Medi-Cal population’s access to care hostage to another population’s access to care,” said Anthony Brown, of Healthy African American Families. “Half of our clients are uninsured, and half are on public programs. These bills ask us to decide which population is more deserving. That’s not a choice we can make. This program will have a disastrous impact on all Medi-Cal patients, especially those in the African-American and Latino communities.”

Maria Castellanos, of the Latino Community Diabetes Council of Los Angeles, warned that the Governor’s plan “will not only remove the medicines that the majority of our families depend on every day, but it will further the existing health disparities gap in our communities. We cannot continue to victimize the victims.”

Gary Puckrein, Executive Director of the National Minority Health Month Foundation, said: "Representing various multi-cultural medical associations, I have great concerns about any program that attempts to interfere with the treatment selection process by denying access to certain medication that doctors prescribe for their patients.”

“The focus should be on saving lives,” he added, “not contributing to the health gap.”

Also participating in today’s news conference were:
Kate McGarvey, National Health Law Center
Maria Luisa Vela, Los Angeles Metro Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
Sandy Cajas, CEO of the Regional (Long Beach, Wilmington, San Pedro area)
Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
Randall Maxey, MD, PhD., President , Alliance of Minority Medical Associations

The following organizations oppose the Governor's prescription drug proposal:
Alliance of Minority Medical Associations
Alzheimer's Aid Society
American Chronic Pain Association
American Russian Medical Association
Asthma & Allergy Foundation of America, Southern California Chapter
California Black Health Network
California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce
Depression and Bipolar Support alliance of California
Healthy African American Families
Huntington's Disease Society of America
Latino Community Diabetes Council of Los Angeles
Los Angeles Metro Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
Maternal Child Health Access
Multicultural Health Policy Consortium
National Alliance for Mentally Ill California (NAMI California)
National Association of Cancer Patients
National Health Law Center
National Minority Health Month Foundation
Neuropathy Action Foundation
Project Inform
Protection & Advocacy, Inc.
Regional Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
San Diego Black Health Associates
The California Coalition For Mental Health (CCMH)
The Mental Health Association In California (MHAC)
Western Center on Law and Poverty