Will Humble Reproductive Health, Wills Blog

Pima County Board of Supervisors Passes Resolution Supporting Continued Provision of Reproductive Health Services

Last week the Pima County Board of Supervisors voted to adopt a resolution that says the County’s support for the provision of reproductive health care and family planning services in the County and the state. It also advocates for continued access to abortion services in the County as a matter of public health.

“Abortion is healthcare. This resolution positively asserts that fact and says our Health Department will continue to aid Pima County families in their reproductive health and family planning needs,” said Board of Supervisors Chair Sharon Bronson, who brought the resolution to the Board for consideration. “While state law prohibits the County from providing full reproductive health services such as abortion, we’re not prevented from providing other services or accurate information about sexual and reproductive health.”

Bronson said Resolution 2022-40 is a reaction by the board to the June 24 Dobbs v. Jackson decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that eliminated the right to an abortion established by the court’s Roe v. Wade decision in 1973.

The Resolution states, “Abortion is a vital health care service that has been legal and safe in the United States for nearly 50 years. Access to legal, safe abortion, and comprehensive sexual and reproductive health more broadly, are critical to protecting and supporting the public’s health. The Supreme Court’s decision ends this basic right of safe access to appropriate health care for too many women and families in this country.”

The Resolution directs the County Administrator to:

  • Ensure the Health Department provides a broad range of legal reproductive health services;
  • Bring together community health care providers for the planning and delivery of reproductive care in the County;
  • Work with partners in the County, state, and nation to issue accurate information about sexual and reproductive health, and to advocate for evidence-based reproductive health care, including abortion.

To aid County residents seeking reproductive health care, the Health Department last week launched a webpage that aggregates all of the reproductive and family planning services provided by the County.

Will Humble State Legislature, Wills Blog

2022 Legislative Session | The Victories | The Setbacks | The Missed Opportunities

After a long and uniquely acrimonious session, the Arizona Legislature concluded its duties early in the morning on June 25, 2022. This session was one to be remembered (or forgotten, depending on how you see it), as the state faced a once-in-a-generation surplus of more than $5 billion that needed to be incorporated into a budget.

See the PowerPoint 

A couple of weeks ago I covered the details of what was in the final budget that was passed and signed. Legislature Passes a Bipartisan Budget for 1st Time in 14 Years: Here’s A Summary Top Line Health & Human Service Line Items

But what about all the other bills?

They’re sometimes forgotten in all the budget drama. Just like every year, there were good things, bad things and missed opportunities. This PowerPoint summarizes the details and I encourage you to go through the PPT. Here are the headline items:

Setbacks

  • Public health emergency authority is greatly reduced for future governors and health department directors (by SB009)
  • Counties and schools lost the ability to implement routine communicable disease control measures (even if not an emergency)
  • Cities lost routine disease control authority (even if not an emergency)
  • ADHS can’t add the COVID vaccine to the list for school attendance
  • Counties can’t require mitigation in churches during a public health emergency
  • Cities can’t require masking on city property – ever

Good Things

  • SB1272 AHCCCS; postpartum care; eligibility: Eligibility (SOBRA) is expanded for up to one-year post-partum (to 150% of federal poverty)
  • HB 2157 – Appropriates $1.44B in Medicaid in FY 2022 to implement the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) home & community-based services for persons with developmental disabilities. AHCCCS Plan Here
  • HB2144 Health insurance coverage; biomarker testing– Requires health insurers to cover biomarker testing as part of patients’ treatment plans
  • HB2113 Developmental disabilities; Down syndrome – People with Down Syndrome are now automatically medically eligible for AHCCCS & DD services
  • SB1162 – Opioid prescriptions; intractable pain; exceptions –Expands the list of exemptions from the 90-morphine milligram equivalent (MME) limit on opioids prescriptions to include patients experiencing chronic intractable pain or receiving opioid treatment for perioperative care following an inpatient surgical procedure.

Featured Disappointment

•SB1716 Arizona State Hospital; Governing Board (Failed)

  • Would have created a badly needed independent ASH Governing Board and transfer operational control of the Arizona State Hospital from ADHS to the new Board on January 1, 2023.
  • Bill was badly needed because the ADHS both runs and regulates the Arizona State Hospital. There are serious concerns about the lack of regulatory rigor by the ADHS Licensing division, particularly during the Director Christ-era.
See the PowerPoint 
Will Humble Public Health Law, State Legislature, Wills Blog

My Take: Vote for Transparency, Accountability, Fairness, and Equality. Vote YES on the Arizonans for Free & Fair Elections Act

Over the last decade or so legislators in the majority party at the Arizona State Legislature have been manipulating election laws to give them an advantage in future elections. They’ve also been making it harder and harder for ordinary people to put forward voter initiatives because they view them as a nuisance.

They say all the laws they’ve passed that make it harder to vote and to run voter initiatives are to improve ‘voting integrity’. But make no mistake. It’s clearly being done to give them an advantage so they can continue to control all 3 branches of state government and avoid what they view as meddling by the voters with voter initiatives.

Finally, the folks at Arizona for Fair Elections said enough is enough and took matters into their own hands by collecting enough signatures to put the Arizonans for Free and Fair Elections Act on the ballot this fall.

The Proposition is simple. It basically returns the power to the people, restoring voting rights that have been lost over the years and stops the legislature from making it even harder to run a voter initiative.

Here are the nuts and bolts… it:

  • Safeguards voters’ right to pass our own laws via voter initiatives. Prevents opponents of citizen-led initiatives from abusing minor technicalities to try to disqualify petition signatures.
  • Makes voter registration more accessible and accurate. Automatically updates your registration when you sign up for a driver’s license or state ID or when you change your address at the MVD. Allows people to register at a polling place on Election Day.
  • Protects your right to vote by mail. Protects your right to stay on the permanent early voting list. Right now, you can be removed if you miss a few elections.
  • Gives people more time and options for voting. Extends in-person early voting through the day before election day. Allows voters to vote at any polling location in their county.
  • Prohibits lobbyists from giving certain gifts to politicians, including paying for lawmakers’ travel and expensive meals.
  • Lowers contribution limits. Reduces the amounts that any one individual or Political Action Committees may contribute to candidates.
  • Protects voting access for Tribal voters and voters with disabilities. Requires Tribal input on the location and hours of polling places. Protects voters with disabilities by ensuring access to a variety of voting methods, including curbside.
  • Protects voters rights to receive needed assistance. Restores voters’ rights to entrust someone to deliver their signed and sealed ballot. Restores people’s rights to provide food and hydration to voters waiting in line.
  • Prevents the state legislature from overturning presidential election results. Ensures that the voters decide who wins elections.
  • Keeps your ballot private. Guards against ballots and other election materials being turned over to unaccountable outside entities for improper uses.

To be honest, it’s kinda sad that the Arizonans for Free and Fair Elections Act is needed, but it is. Badly.

Vote for transparency, accountability, fairness, and equality. Vote YES on the Arizonans for Free and Fair Elections Act

Will Humble Professional Development, Wills Blog

AzPHA Summer Book Club About to Start

Do you find it hard to find time to read? Do you need new inspiration for your work in public health? Would you like the opportunity to meet others working in the field in Arizona?

Join the AzPHA virtual book club! We’ll meet once a month via Zoom to discuss books about the field and get know each other better. The first book is “Mountains Beyond Mountains” by Tracy Kidder. The first 30 people to sign up will receive a free copy. 

The book summary: 

In medical school, Paul Farmer found his life’s calling: to cure infectious diseases and to bring the lifesaving tools of modern medicine to those who need them most. Tracy Kidder’s magnificent account shows how one person can make a difference in solving global health problems through a clear-eyed understanding of the interaction of politics, wealth, social systems, and disease. 

Profound and powerful, Mountains Beyond Mountains takes us from Harvard to Haiti, Peru, Cuba, and Russia as Farmer changes people’s minds through his dedication to the philosophy that “the only real nation is humanity”.

Sign up by emailing AzPHA President Elect: Kellidonley@gmail.com

Meeting dates to be determined. We hope you’ll join us for this great opportunity to continue to learn and meet new colleagues. 

Amazon.com: Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World : Tracy Kidder, Paul Michael
Will Humble Social Determinants, Wills Blog

Supporting the Efforts of Healthcare Professionals Addressing the Social Determinants of Health

Contribution from AzPHA Member Jason Zibart

The last few weeks have been tough for both healthcare and public health professionals, and it comes on top of everything we have experienced over the last two years. We have all seen the court rulings and policy shifts. We know how these shifts will likely impact the health of Americans.

Over the last few days professional societies have been voicing their concerns. One of these societies is of particular interest. The American Medical Association has endorsed voting as a social determinate of health. They have also released a roadmap for improving racial justice and advancing health equity. These recent moves were no accident. As public health professionals we should consider how we can partner with and support our healthcare professional colleagues.

As professions public health and medicine have not always had the same goals, nor have they always effectively collaborated for the greater good. Today that isn’t always true. Healthcare providers have started taking more and more interest in the social determinants of health. That interest is being driven by healthcare professionals that are tired of seeing patients that have issues beyond the ability of prescriptions and procedures to fix. That is where Dr. Alister Martin came on the scene.

If you go to the Vot-ER website https://vot-er.org/ you will find the following statement. “Dr. Alister Martin is a practicing emergency medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital. Like so many nurses, social workers, medical students, and doctors across America, he goes to work every day knowing he’ll meet people he can’t help through medical care alone. There aren’t prescriptions or procedures to fix homelessness, hunger, illiteracy, joblessness, or violence—the larger forces responsible for many people’s poor health and reliance on emergency rooms and community health centers.”

To try and make a difference on those social determinants of health issues Dr. Martin founded Vot-ER and the Civic Health Fellowship. Why? Because when it comes to SDOH issues, there is one simple thing healthcare providers can do to help their patients and change outcomes.

They help patients register to vote. The program does not endorse political parties or individual candidates. They just help people register to vote. To that end many Vot-ER Civic Health Fellows were involved in the AMA endorsement recognizing voting as a social determinant of health issue.

Why does all this matter to public health professionals? Because it’s our mission, right? Homelessness, hunger, illiteracy, joblessness, and violence are all within the base of the health impact pyramid. Addressing these issues through policy shifts has the best chance at making the largest impact on the health of our communities. Healthcare organizations generally have more interaction with people on a day-to-day basis than public health organizations. This puts them perfectly positioned to address an issue like voter registration.

How can we support this movement among healthcare professionals? Reach out to your contacts and introduce them to Vot-ER and the work happening all over the country. Show them that change is happening and encourage them to be part of it. Support them in an attempt to permanently bridge the divide between public health and healthcare.

Feel free to reach out to me with any questions you might have! jzibart@kent.edu

Will Humble Social Determinants, Wills Blog

My Take: ‘Vote the Golden Rule: YES on Prop 308’

Fifteen years ago, a ballot measure passed that punishes Dreamers – kids who were brought to Arizona by their parents as a child without proper documentation. That measure, called Proposition 300, prohibits Dreamers (people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program) from qualifying for in-state tuition at our public universities and community colleges. It also stops them from competing for scholarships funded by local or state government.

Each year about 2,000 students graduate from Arizona high schools only to run into a brick wall because of that law. Dreamers have to pay a lot more for tuition in Arizona public universities & community than their high school classmates even if they’ve been living in Arizona and went to high school here.

For example, a Dreamer graduating from an Arizona high school pays more than $326 per credit hour at a Maricopa County Community College while his or her classmate from the same high school pays only $85 per credit hour. In-state tuition at ASU is $10,978, but for an in-state Dreamer it’s $16,500 and they’re not even allowed to compete for local or state government scholarships.

On what planet is that fair?

Proposition 308 fixes that inequity by letting Dreamers who went to high school in Arizona pay in-state tuition & compete for scholarships at our universities and community colleges just like their classmates.

The simple fairness of Prop 308 will help public health and economic development too. Research shows that college graduates have a $380,000 net positive contribution to the state and graduating from a community college or university is often a fast pass out of intergenerational poverty.

Do you believe in fairness? Do you believe in the Golden Rule?

If so, you only have one choice: Vote YES on Proposition 308.

View Proposition 308
Will Humble EMS, Wills Blog

My Take: ‘Proposition 310 May Save Your Life’

We have 2 unequal emergency medical service systems in Arizona. Folks who live in cities & towns enjoy well-performing emergency medical systems that have up-to-date equipment, staff, and training.

Residents of rural Arizona (especially unincorporated areas) don’t enjoy the same level of emergency medical services as urbanites. It’s not just because of the long distances the responders travel when responding to 911 calls. It’s because rural areas simply don’t have the resources to provide the same level of service that we take for granted in urban and suburban Arizona.

Unincorporated areas need to form their own rural fire & EMS districts with money cobbled together via a special local property tax to have access to fire and emergency medical services. They don’t have a city council to go to for funding. They’re basically stuck trying to get blood out of a turnip. As a result, rural EMS care is substandard.

The major disparity in the quality of emergency medical care in unincorporated Arizona bothered me when I was the director of the state health department, but I had no way of fixing it.

Now we have a solution. Proposition 310 will supplement rural fire districts with a 0.1% sales tax collected statewide. That’s equal to an extra dime on a purchase of $100. Rural fire districts won’t be getting a free lunch though. The lion’s share of fire & EMS district funding will still come from local property taxes.

The next time you’re driving through rural Arizona ask yourself whether you think an extra dime on a $100 purchase is worth knowing that someone would help you if something bad happens. Will they have the equipment & training they need to save your life?

If Proposition 310 passes they will, so Vote YES!

Will Humble Public Health Law, Wills Blog

My Take: ‘Keep Your Power: Vote No on Proposition 132’

Arizona has a long, proud history of direct democracy via ballot initiatives. It has served us well.

Voter initiatives are a check balance in the system – one of the only ways that we as members of the public can push back against the stranglehold that deep pocket special interests like the chamber of commerce have on the legislature.

For years, members of the state legislature proposed bills to prohibit smoking in public places like bars and restaurants. But year after year, deep pocketed, well-connected business lobbyists found ways to kill those bills using their bag of magic tricks like getting the speaker of the house or president of the senate to make sure the bills were never heard.

Finally, in 2006, a group of nonprofits and ordinary citizens took matters into their own hands and collected enough signatures to get the Smoke Free Arizona Act onto the ballot. That Initiative included a ban on smoking in public places (with exceptions) and included a 2 cent per pack tobacco tax for enforcement.

Business interests fought hard against it, even running their own weakened voter initiative. But in the end, enough people saw that the Smoke Free Arizona Act was good. It passed by a margin of 54.7% to 45.3%.

Now, the Legislature wants you to approve Proposition 132 which will require voter initiatives that include a tax or fee to pass with at least 60% of the vote. If Proposition 132 was in effect back in 2006 we might very well still have public spaces full of tobacco smoke.

Prop 132 is a bald-faced attempt to take your power away and give it to the deep-pocketed lobbyists & business interests.

Don’t let them. Please vote no on Proposition 132.

Will Humble Public Health Law, Wills Blog

My Take: Vote for Transparency. Vote ‘YES’ On the ‘Voters Right to Know Act’

Please Vote for Transparency: Vote Yes on the Voters’ Right to Know Act

Dark money is political spending on election advertising by anonymous sources. It is called “Dark Money” because we can’t see who’s sponsoring the messages in political ads.

Under current Arizona law, rich power brokers get special treatment and unduly influence elections by secretly spending money on advertisements and promotions supporting their candidate or ballot proposition. This “Dark Money” bombards voters with negative ads, misleading information, and even outright lies.

Because we don’t know who’s paying for the advertisements, ordinary people don’t have the information they need to figure out whether it’s credible or not. It’s like my grandmother used to always say…  “According to whom?”  Well, with Dark Money dominating our elections, we can’t answer that question for ourselves.

The Voters Right to Know Act will fix that. It simply builds transparency into our political system by requiring ALL major contributors to identify themselves if they spend more than $5,000 for a campaign or candidate.

Elections have profound impacts on public health and policy– good and bad. Persons that get elected to public office at the federal state and local level routinely make decisions that influence public health. They appoint people for key jobs (we saw how important that was during the pandemic). They also make funding decisions that impact public health.

In short, elections have a significant impact on public health. That’s why it’s super important to have an informed electorate, so people can make informed decisions about what they decide in the ballot box- whether it’s a person running for elected office at the state, federal, or local level- or whether it’s about a voter initiative.

Cast your vote for Transparency. Vote YES on the Voters Right to Know Act.

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