Standing Up for Health Care

The Affordable Care Act (also known as the ACA or “Obamacare”) has been an important advance in health care policy for St. Anthony’s guests, allowing homeless Dining Room clients, single adults with disabilities who find support through our Social Work Center, and Fr. Alfred Center residents who are rebuilding their lives after struggling with addiction, to access the medical care they need.

Should Congress eliminate the Affordable Care Act, California would lose $16 billion in federal Medicaid funding, eliminating coverage to 3.5 million low-income Californians, including St. Anthony’s guests.   This would be due to the loss of the federally-funded “Medicaid expansion”, which allows low-income adults who previously were not eligible for Medicaid (called “Medi-Cal” in California) to be able to receive health care through the program.  Should the Medicaid expansion end, 78,000 San Franciscans, including homeless people, low-wage workers, and people who are unemployed, would lose access to health coverage through Medi-Cal.

How can we stand up to protect health care for the St. Anthony’s community? The answer to this question is simple: we need to engage with our elected officials and encourage our friends and family members to do the same.  Here are a few things we can do:

Sign up for St. Anthony’s advocacy email alerts here and we will let you know when it’s time to get in touch with your elected officials.  We will send advocacy alerts with information about the latest political news, and a link to a simple online form that makes it easy to send an email to your Congressional representatives.

Call your member of Congress.  Use the number for the Capitol switchboard, 202-224-3121, and the operator can connect you to your Senators and Representative.  Not sure who represents you?  Click here for the U.S. House of Representatives or here for the U.S. Senate.  You can search for your representative by zip code or by state at each site.

Share your story.  Health Access California, a  statewide health care consumer advocacy coalition, is collecting stories from people who have benefited from the Affordable Care Act.  Click here if you’d like to share your story with them.

Please feel free to contact Colleen Rivecca, St. Anthony’s Advocacy Program Lead with any questions about advocacy at St. Anthony’s.