The challenges and opportunities of the new year…

We are gratified for the great turn-out and expression of thanks and celebration yesterday at the Health Access 25th Anniversary Symposium. If there was any message from the program, it was outlining the challenges and the opportunities of the Affordable Care Act, and the magnitude of the work California needs to do in the next ten months to get ready, if not to maximize the benefit of the law for our state.

We’ll have more follow-up from the event, but here’s a write-up from Lisa Aliferis at KQED’s State of Health blog. She laid out the scene…

“More than 200 people filled a Sacramento hotel meeting room yesterday to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Health Access, the consumer health advocacy group. But it wasn’t all party — the event featured a four-hour symposium with speakers including Diana Dooley, secretary of the state Health and Human Services agency; key legislators who chair health committees; and long time health advocates.

And everyone was focused on one thing: implementation of the Affordable Care Act…”

Recent articles citing the expected upcoming special session on health care also lay out the task at hand, from Kenny Goldberg at KPBS to the Michael Mishak of the Los Angeles Times.

In the next few days, we’ll post more about the specifics of what needs to be done.

Health Access California promotes quality, affordable health care for all Californians.