PRIMARY CARE: Conference Friday to Rally Leaders Across State
Leaders in health care across the state will meet at the Radisson Miyako Hotel in San Francisco tomorrow for a one-day forum to respond to the "urgent [basic health] needs of our communities [and] to identify immediate ways to work together toward solutions," according to California Primary Care Consortium (CPCC) Executive Director Laura Johnson-Morasch. She adds, "California still falls far below the mark of acceptable delivery of primary care. ... Millions of Californians lack health insurance and cannot seek care they urgently need. Residents of rural areas, even with insurance, sometimes cannot find a doctor because of undersupply. Physician groups contracting with managed care are going bankrupt at an alarming rate. And even in our state, where so-called ethnic 'minorities' are becoming the ethnic majority, we have not achieved equal health status for these groups with the white population. This situation is all the more troubling given California's prosperous economy." In the past, health groups have worked separately, collaborating only on specific issues or events; however, Johnson-Morasch concludes, "The health of our state is too important, and the challenges too great, to go it alone any longer." Speakers will include:
- Dr. America Bracho, executive director of Latino Health Access in Santa Ana;
- Edward O'Neil, co-director of the UCSF Center for the Health Professions and professor of Family and Community Medicine at UCSF;
- John O'Neil of the Center for Leadership Renewal.