Why should young people care about what is currently going on with the American Health Care Act (AHCA)?

This is going to affect them dramatically because young people also get sick. There’s young people that get in a car accident, there’s young people that get injured in sports, at their jobs, that eventually need to go to the emergency department. Also, especially young people in the Eastern Coachella Valley care about their parents and they care about their uncles and aunts and their grandparents and they know that a family unit is the most important unit in our society, especially in our culture. So that if your grandparent is 62 years old now and can’t afford [living costs] because they are spending half of their salary on health care, then that affects your parents and affects their ability to make ends meet.

What is something you would like to clarify about the current discussion around ACA?

One, Obamacare is not failing. You cannot call insuring 20 million more people a failure. You cannot call protecting youth to stay on their parents’ health care up to the age of 26 a failure. You cannot call people who now have guaranteed coverage for emergency care, maternity care, mental health care, pharmaceutical drugs a failure. You cannot call protecting people with pre-existing conditions from being denied health insurance or increasing their costs a failure. So these are successes of the Affordable Care Act.

It is like someone who says you’re gonna fall down and then they pull the rug from underneath you and say, ‘See, you fell down.’

The failure is the willful and purposeful threat and uncertainty that Republicans and the Trump administration have created in order to make private health insurance charge more in premiums and also to force them to leave the exchanges. They’ve done this for political gain, in order to just tell people that, ‘See, these are the problems that are happening.’

It is like someone who says you’re gonna fall down and then they pull the rug from underneath you and say, ‘See, you fell down.’

So we need to break down the true reasons why health care costs are going up. We know that it is the cost of medication. We know that is the cost of health care and this bill [Trumpcare] does nothing for that. Instead, it gives a nice, huge tax break to the pharmaceutical industry.

What is your message to those in the Eastern Coachella Valley that might not be seeking medical care right now because they are scared?

There is no need to live in fear. We have to be dedicated to our families, our society, our community and to our jobs. Folks need to live good lives, with discipline and always be supportive of one another because we are going through some tough times with a lot of risks and threats. I encourage folks to live within their faith so they can continue to have faith that things in our political system will change in the future.

About the Author:

Paulina Rojas is a native New Yorker, Paulina has spent the past two years reporting on the Eastern Coachella Valley. She joined Coachella Unincorporated in 2016.  While it is different from the concrete jungle of Manhattan, she feels right at home in Coachella. In 2014 Paulinagraduated with a journalism degree from The University of Houston and is a member of The National Association of Hispanic Journalists. View her author page here.

By: Amanda Flores

THERMAL, Calif. — Hundreds of eastern Coachella Valley students earned their cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) automated external defibrillator (AED) certification earlier this month at a health career event at Desert Mirage High School.

The event, hosted by the Heart2Heart Foundation, connected students with dozens of health career representatives and even featured a special rescue demonstration by Congressman Raul Ruiz (D-CA 36th District), who arrived at the event in an air ambulance helicopter.

Richard DeRose, executive director of the Heart2Heart Foundation, said he organized the health career fair and CPR training with the Coachella Valley School District in order to instill confidence in students through learning life saving skills, like CPR.

“It is the [Heart2Heart] foundation’s goal to create a greater awareness about careers in nursing, para-medicine, and firefighting,” DeRose said. “By training every high school student in CPR and AED prior to graduating, we are creating safer communities and saving more lives.”

Currently, twenty-seven states require high school students to earn their CPR certification before graduating, but California is not on that list. Still, DeRose, a former flight paramedic and active American Heart Association basic life support instructor, said he is determined to help all Coachella Valley students learn how to perform CPR and use an AED.

In order to earn their CPR and AED certification, students needed to complete a two-part program. Students were required to complete the first part of the program online through the American Heart Association’s Heartsaver CPR/AED training curriculum. Then, came the practical skills evaluation and testing phase. Yudith Torres, a senior at Desert Mirage, was one of the students to successfully earn her CPR and AED certification.

“I feel that learning these essential life saving skills will help me out in any situation in life, and you never know when someone needs you,” Torres said. “It was an amazing opportunity to have the chance to learn how to save someone’s life.”

Ruiz, a former emergency room physician, said the students earning their CPR and AED certifications were preparing to become leaders in their community.

“Learning these life saving skills shows leadership and it gives you self confidence,” Ruiz said. “The fact that you are now able to save a life means that you have the responsibility to use your education and your skills to improve the lives of people in this community.”

The Heart2Heart Foundation also works to connect students interested in health careers with scholarship and mentorship opportunities. DeRose said he has received support from the Desert Sands Unified School District and the Palm Springs Unified School District to bring similar CPR and AED training programs to more high schools throughout Coachella Valley.

“Not only are we better preparing our students to save a life, but also creating a higher caliber of healthcare providers in the Coachella Valley,” DeRose said.

For more information regarding the Heart2Heart Foundation contact Richard DeRose, at 760-895-0041 or [email protected].

About the author:

Amanda Flores, 15, is a lifelong Coachella resident. She joined Coachella Unincorporated last year and has already written several articles on community health and farmworker services. After high school, Amanda said she wants to study law or medicine. View Amanda‘s author page here.