Over 50 midwives and student midwives from across California joined CNMA in Sacramento for our 2013 Health Policy/Lobby Day!

CNMA President Wende Owen began our day with an introduction of our CNMA board of directors and then Kim Dau, Health policy co-chair, gave an overview of lobby day. She reviewed several key bills that are moving through the legislature this year and then presented the priority issues for our afternoon legislative visits.  This year's key bills were:

1) SBX1 1: Expanding and Simplifying Medi-Cal: State Implementation of Medicaid Provisions of Federal Health Care Reform - specifically in strong support of expanding full scope Medi-Cal services for pregnant woman who have "pregnancy-only" Medi-Cal.

and

2) AB 154: Improving Early Abortion Access - Published research demonstrates CNM, NP, and PA safety in performing this first trimester aspiration abortion and CNMA supports this bill because it is consistent with the continuum of women's reproductive health care that CNMs are educated to provide.

Linda Walsh, CNM, PhD then presented "The Midwifery Model: A Modern Policy Solution to Maternal Morbidity and Mortality" that lead to a lively Q & A discussion. And Judy Tinklenberg briefly presented on her new birth center opportunity supported by managed care interest in high quality, low cost health care!

Angela Blanchard and Holly Escareno, our legislative advocates from Political Solutions then joined with Margy Hutchison in a role play of a legislative visit.

Scott Bain, Senate health Committee Consultant gave us an informative presentation on the state of Health Care Reform and Implementation in California.

After an informative morning, those in attendance broke into smaller work groups for a catered lunch from Magpie before beginning their afternoon legislative visits. 

We ended the day with Happy Hour at Ella's to socialize and unwind- the perfect end to a productive day.

CNMA has been going to Sacramento annually for the past eleven years and we are starting to not only feel more comfortable in the Capitol, but also see the fruits of our efforts. Several of the staff around the Capitol know us now and are becoming familiar with our mission. That is what Lobby Day is all about, and it is working! We hope to see you at next year's CNMA health policy/lobby day, spring 2014!