Lobby Day 2009 Writeup Draft

Med Student Lobby Day Writeup
Advocates for the Underserved (AFTU) and American Medical Student Association (AMSA)

Introduction and Purpose

increase civic engagement among med students
learn more about the legislative process
inform our legislators about our priorities
basic health and gau budget cuts, fiscal crisis
med student tuition bill


Methods and Materials

Coming up with a legislative agenda (Resources, websites, links?)


Contacting and setting up meetings with legislators
script of interaction (name, district, important issue, how many students represented)
tips when calling legislative aides


Funding
MSA provided funding for breakfast and gas (What is the process of getting this, e.g. who to email, application?)


Recruitment
e-mails to these lists : med school, aftu, etc
SPARX points

Handouts for attendees
badges "Healthcare for all"
agenda and schedule
issues sheet
etc

Logistics
drivers volunteered


Results
impressions, what went well, what could have been done better


changes in the bill regarding primary care and med student tuition

Conclusion / Recommendations for Next Time
tracking bills, coordinated response for situations such as med student tuition bill where there are many different opinions
ask for and advertise availability of sparx points earlier in the process
print off lists of representatives and senators (this was brought by nancy amidei this time)


Appendix
All handouts (agenda and schedule, AFTU issues sheet, etc)
google doc scheduling spreadsheet

e-mails sent out



Hello everyone,

Thank you to all of you who made it to the AFTU lobby day on Monday! We appreciated everyone showing up on their day off and working to make our legislators aware of some important issues. Here is a summary of the day for all of you who were unable to attend:

• Approx. 15 AFTU members traveled to the capitol in Olympia
• We started the day with an advocacy training session with Nancy Amidei, MSW
• We had at least 10 meetings with legislators from the House and Senate or their aids and distributed our written concerns to many more offices
• We advocated for the following:
- continued funding for the Basic Health plan: a state subsidized health plan that insures 120,000 of Washington's working poor
- continued funding for General Assistance Unemployment (GAU): a program that provides income for mentally and physically disabled people in our state
- House Bill 1892: a bill which would create a single payer health care system that would ensure quality coverage for all WA citizens
- Senate Bill 5502: we voiced our support for the bill's intent to increase primary care physicians in WA state, but expressed some concerns about the way the bill would be financed.

If you are interested in following up on these bills, we highly encourage you to do so. You can go to the WA state legislature website and search for a bill using the "bill information" tab on the left of the screen:

http://www.leg.wa.gov/legislature

As we learned from our visit, if you see that the bill is in the "Rules" committee, that is a great time to pick up the phone and call your legislator.

Thanks again everybody.

Best,

Jacob Sunshine, MS-II
Teresa Lee, MS-I
Colin McCluney, MS-I
James Kuo, MS-I
Peter Karlin, MS-IV

Stay tuned for an upcoming education/advocacy event in the spring quarter.