Santa Clara County Faith Leaders to Host Bi-Partisan Health Care Summit “Watch Party”

February 25, 2010

Media Advisory for February 25, 2010

Contact: Adrian Cerda, adrian@cerda.net, 408.205.1628

Harriet Wolf, 408.489.9275

Santa Clara County Faith Leaders to Host

Bi-Partisan Health Care Summit “Watch Party”

Nationwide gatherings urge Congress to finish the job,

bring reform home

With the future of health care reform hanging in the balance, clergy and people of faith from PACT, People Acting in Community Together, an alliance of 22 congregations representing 50,000 people in Santa Clara County, will gather on Thursday, February 25 at 7pm at 6301 Mountford Dr. San Jose, 95123 to watch highlights of the President’s Bi-Partisan Health Care Summit in Washington, D.C. and develop plans to press Congress to pass a bill by Spring that makes health care affordable for all.

Leaders from Santa Clara County have worked tirelessly throughout the past year to pass comprehensive health reform legislation that makes coverage affordable for all American families.  To build support for reform, they had a large community action meeting in May with Congressmembers Zoe Lofgren and Mike Honda, a 100-person press conference during a critical juncture for health reform in August, and an interfaith clergy press conference on January 13^th.  These events highlighted the ongoing, strong public support for what reform will accomplish, such as reining in skyrocketing insurance premiums and preventing insurers from dropping policyholders when they get sick.

Nationwide, faith-based organizations associated with the PICO National Network, an alliance of 1,000 congregations helping families improve their communities, will hold similar watch parties to pray and plan next steps to win the fight for affordable health care.

WHAT:            Bi-Partisan Health Care Summit Watch Parties

WHO:            Local faith leaders from PACT who have been working all year to pass comprehensive health reform legislation, including:

·      Congregation Shir Hadash, Los Gatos

·      La Trinidad United Methodist Church

·      Cambrian Park United Methodist Church

WHEN:            Thursday, February 25, 2010 at 7pm

WHERE:            6301 Mountford Dr., San Jose, CA 95123

More Information:

Every day, more Californians – including Silicon Valley’s middle class and affluent families - are losing health coverage due to the state’s budget crisis, skyrocketing unemployment, and increasing costs of insurance:

§  Children are being bumped off state health programs as the budget is cut again and again.

§  Entire families are losing employer-based coverage with growing numbers of lay offs.

  §  Families cannot afford to maintain private health coverage as fees rise and their income becomes more insecure – many Silicon Valley professionals have gone from salaried employment with benefits to sporadic contract work, at best.

 §  More than one out of three people (37.4 percent) in California went without health insurance for all or part of 2007-2008.

§  Between January 2008 and January 2009, it is estimated that 637,300 California workers and their families joined the ranks of uninsured because of the state’s 4 percent increase in unemployment.  Unemployment  - now nearly 12% in Silicon Valley - and the numbers of uninsured continue to increase.

Event Organized by:

v PACT: People Acting in Community Together is a multi-ethnic, interfaith organization that empowers people to create a more just community.  PACT represents 21 congregations and 50,000 people in Santa Clara County, and is part of the PICO National Network.  www.pactsj.org

v PICO National Network has fifty-two affiliated federations working in 150 cities and towns and seventeen states. More than one million families and one thousand congregations from forty different denominations and faiths participate in PICO. www.piconetwork.org

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