California Delegates Advocate on Behalf of Rural America
as part of NRHA’s Policy Institute
February 27, 2007

A midst a snowy storm, 400 rural advocates from across the country traveled to Washington D.C. for the National Rural Health Association (NRHA) Annual Rural Health Policy Institute. Due to the extreme weather conditions that week, several members of the California State Rural Health Association (CSRHA) were stranded in various parts of the country with out being able to travel into the nation’s capitol city. Despite the challenges in travel, those who managed to beat the storm into D.C. learned an important lesson: rural California has friends in high places on Capitol Hill.

“What a difference an election makes!” says Speranza Avram, CSRHA President. “For the first time in years, rural constituents from California MATTER! First, Wendell Primus, chief health policy advisor to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi knows first hand about the issues we face, having grown up in rural Iowa and witnessing the loss of the hospital in his community. Pete Stark, democrat from Alameda County is now Chair of the House Ways and Means Health Sub-Committee. We met with his new committee consultant, who is none other than Jennifer Freidman, formerly with the National Rural Health Association. She attended the CSRHA annual conference last year and went to school at Cal, so she will be a very good ally for us as well. This is the year that California really gets to weigh in on important rural health issues on the national level.” [Photo above, left to right: California delegates, Rick DeGette, Alameda County Behavioral Health Services, Brian Keefer, California Mental Health Planning Council, Senator Barbara Boxer, Heather Bonser-Bishop, Bonser-Bishop Consulting, Speranza Avram, CSRHA President]

A delegation of seven CSRHA members made visits to the offices of 12 congressional representatives, specifically requesting member’s support on the following issues:

Overall, Congressional members were supportive of rural heath funding and aware of the existence and need for rural health safety net programs; they confidently suggested that like past years the President’s proposed cuts would be reinstated in the final budget. Heather Bonser-Bishop of Bonser-Bishop Consulting, met with Congressman Mike Thompson and his health staffer, Liz Thomas. “He is supportive of proportional representation on MedPAC,” Bonser-Bishop says. “We also talked about the importance of National Health Service Corps and Area Health Education Centers. I’ve worked with Liz before on Health Professions Shortage Area (HPSA) designation issues and she’s up to speed on them and we’re both interested in when the draft HPSA regulations will be available for public comment.” [Photo above right, Speranza Avram, CSRHA President and Congressman John T. Doolittle]

In conjunction with the NRHA Policy Institute, Bonser-Bishop and Paty Gonzalez, of CSRHA met for the first time with the inaugural class of the NRHA Rural Fellows. The program is a one-year long, intensive leadership development program. As two of only fifteen fellows selected nation wide, Bonser-Bishop and Gonzalez will be working with their classmates on personal, team, and strategic leadership, health policy and advocacy, and NRHA governance and structure. The fellows will also be working on various assigned group projects to be presented to the NRHA board of directors.

To view the power-point presentations made by numerous prominent speakers including, Marcia Brand, Director of the Office of Rural Health Policy and Carolyn Clancy of Agency for Health Research and Quality, visit the NRHA website at http://www.nrharural.org/conferences/sub/PI.html.