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.

MARIA GARCIA, AURORA SALDIVAR & BRENDA R. RINCON/Coachella Uninc

THERMAL – Hundreds of Eastern Coachella Valley families may have something to be thankful for very soon: health insurance.

The WE Connect Health Care Enrollment and Resource Fair, held last Saturday at Coachella Valley High School, brought dozens of resources together to inform approximately 1,200 attendees about their health care options under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Among them was Francisca Rubalcava, 57, who has never had health insurance. She has seen a doctor three times — once when each of her two daughters was born and once in Mexico.

“I want to find out if it’s true that one can get insurance, based on the money you have,” Rubalcava said in Spanish. Her only source of income is her husband’s Social Security checks.

Rubalcava says she is in excellent health and is more worried about her two daughters.

“I have a daughter in college, and if she gets sick, she can have somewhere to turn,” she said.

Her daughter Maria Flores, 24, helped Rubalcava fill out the applications. She also applied for herself, her husband, and her six-month old son, Alexander.

WE Connect, which has visited communities across the state, is particularly important in this region where 25 percent of residents live below the poverty line and make less than $7,000 annually.

“Having WE Connect in Coachella was significant on various levels, especially when it comes to reaching those who might not otherwise have access to reliable information on how the implementation of ACA will affect them,” said Silvia Paz, manager of Building Healthy Communities Eastern Coachella Valley. “There are over 30,000 residents in the Coachella Valley who qualify but are not enrolled for low cost or no cost insurance, like Medi-Cal, and the majority reside in the Eastern Coachella Valley.”

Adilene Gomez, 24 knows the devastating consequences of not having health care. When she suffered a miscarriage, she was denied Medi-Cal and was left with a $20,000 hospital bill.

“It’s difficult for people who don’t have a lot of work to pay for a huge medical bill, having kids and payments to do for the house and other utilities,” she said.

Gomez and her family attended WE Connect to apply for Obamacare. “There are a lot of people (at WE Connect) who can help you with paperwork and to tell you what you do or don’t qualify for, like for anyone who doesn’t own a computer or has the time for it. I think there should be a few more of events like this so people can come because some people don’t know.”

BHC Eastern Coachella Valley is dedicating efforts to ensure that those currently left out of the ACA, including the undocumented population, will soon be eligible for coverage.

“Building Healthy Communities Prevention Team received over 100 pledges to support access to medical services for the remaining uninsured,” said Paz. “aAmong those who supported the pledge were Assemblyman V. Manuel Perez, Supervisor John Benoit, and (Coachella) Mayor Eduardo Garcia.”

The free event also offered medical screenings, financial planning resources, and enrollment assistance with CalFresh, the food assistance program for low-income Californians. The first 300 attendees received free frozen turkeys.

“WE Connect signaled the first of many efforts of Building Healthy Communities to ensure access for all to medical services, including providing resources to the remaining uninsured,” Paz said.

WE Connect is part of Building Health Communities Eastern Coachella Valley’s health care enrollment efforts. The event was co-sponsored by Covered California and The California Endowment’s “Asegúrate” or “Get Covered” initiative.

By Ivan Delgado, Johnny Flores Jr., and Santos Reyes
Coachella Unincorporated

Thermal, Calif. – Lorena Lopez arrived at Desert Mirage High School in the dark of night in hopes of being among the first treated at The Flying Doctors mobile clinic on March 31.

Throbbing tooth pain left the 40-year-old Thermal resident with no other choice but to take her place in the already long line.

“I don’t have health insurance and I don’t have enough money to go to the dentist,” she said in Spanish.

Nearly seven hours later, Lopez sat down in a makeshift dentist chair while a volunteer dentist removed the tooth decay and cleaned up the infection causing her pain.

A doctor specializing in emergency medicine, Dr. Raul Ruiz was one of many local doctors who joined The Flying Doctors in providing medical care for Eastern Coachella Valley residents.

While Ruiz believes The Flying Doctors is important for this medically underserved community, he is concerned that so many families must stand in line for hours on end to see a doctor.

“I saw a mother and her child camped out in a van,” said Ruiz. “An event like this reminds us to find a better solution. It makes us ask, ‘Who are we as a community?’”

Coachella resident Victoria Hernandez took her place in line at 4 a.m. Her six-year-old grandson, Omar Garcia, was suffering from unbearable tooth pain.

At approximately 9 a.m., Hernandez was informed by dentists that the pain was being caused by an abscess beneath Omar’s teeth.  The infected tooth would need to be removed immediately to prevent his gums from being affected. But young Omar first had to endure painful oral injections of local anesthesia.

“Medical care is unaffordable,” added Ruiz, “and California has one of the highest unemployment rates.”

Ruiz saw various health effects of the working class, including diabetes, at The Flying Doctors clinic. He also treated a patient with shingles, which is a painful type of rash that is contagious.

Ruiz, a democrat who grew up in Coachella, is running for Congress against republican incumbent Mary Bono-Mack.

“We as a community in the Eastern Coachella Valley lack in resources,” said Lucy Moreno, community health outreach program coordinator for Clínicas de Salud del Pueblo. “This event is put on so that those desperately-needed resources are brought to those who are in desperate need.”

The Flying Doctors, or Los Médicos Voladores in Spanish, is a volunteer-based nonprofit organization that aims to improve the health and well being of geographically diverse people through education and the provision of no-cost, high quality medical, dental and optometry services. This group of volunteers serves Mexico, Central and South America, and migrant labor populations in the South Eastern regions of California.

“Until a health care reform is completed than an event like this is a necessity,” said Moreno.

The Flying Doctors will return to the Eastern Coachella Valley this fall.

For more information, visit www.flyingdocs.org.

By Johnny Flores, Jr.
Coachella Unincorporated

Thermal, Calif. – Residents from throughout the Eastern Coachella Valley will flock to Desert Mirage High School to receive medical attention from The Flying Doctors and other local medical professionals this Saturday, March 31, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

For some attendees, this is the only time they will have receive medical care for an entire year, if not longer. In a community where medical attention is severely lacking and transportation is largely unavailable, this event is desperately needed.

Over 1,500 patients were treated when The Flying Doctors were last here in September 2011. Organizers expect to exceed those numbers tomorrow.

Health care services being offered include: medical exams, dental treatments, eye exams, mammograms, diabetic screenings, blood pressure checks, and chiropractic services. In addition, there will be educational movie screenings, a resource fair, and free child care. The objective of this event is to help communities in the Eastern Coachella Valley live a healthier lifestyle and help residents find a medical and dental home.

“We as a community in the Eastern Coachella Valley lack in resources,” said Lucy Moreno, community health outreach program coordinator for Clínicas de Salud del Pueblo. “This event is put on so that those desperately-needed resources are brought to those who are in desperate need.”

The Coachella Valley Healthcare Access report in December 2010 states that the Coachella Valley has a healthcare crisis due to the magnitude of insufficient healthcare access. The degree of poverty and lack of healthcare services make the communities in the Coachella Valley among the most underserved in the state of California.

“We encourage the community to live healthier and that is what this event plans on doing,” said Moreno, who is the local event coordinator for The Flying Doctors. “We want to inform about different things so in turn they will change their lifestyles in hopes of living healthier than previously.”

With Regional Access Project Foundation as the lead sponsor and several co-sponsors — including The Royal Plaza Inn, Coachella Valley Unified School District, Desert Women for Equality Program, Coachella Valley Rotary Club, John F. Kennedy Hospital, Western Growers, Borrego Community Health Foundation, Volunteers in Medicine, Ciro’s Restaurants and Forest Lawn — this Saturday’s event aims to the biggest in the programs sixteen years.

The Flying Doctors, or Los Médicos Voladores in Spanish, is a volunteer-based nonprofit organization that aims to improve the health and well being of geographically diverse people through education and the provision of no-cost, high quality medical, dental and optometry services. This group of volunteers serves Mexico, Central and South America, and migrant labor populations in the South Eastern regions of California.

“Until a health care reform is completed than an event like this is a necessity,” said Moreno.

The Flying Doctors plan to return to the Eastern Coachella Valley this fall.

For more information, visit www.flyingdocs.org.