Membership on the Healthcare Committee is open to all League members.
The committee generally meets on the first Wednesday of every month in the League office or conference room depending on the speaker. Check the calendar for updated listings.
In October, 2011 speaker Helen Hutchison, who currently serves on the state board of the League of Women Voters of California as program director and has been League president in Oakland spoke to us about the actions the statewide League has taken at the legislature and governor’s level in Sacramento. The California League works with the healthcare position that the national League adopted in 1993. It is surprisingly still relevant and timely. The healthcare problems identified in 1993 have not gone away.
In September, 2011 speaker Linda Williams talked to us about significant national healthcare issues focusing on an analysis of benefits and problem solutions in our new national healthcare law “The Affordable Care Act of 2010.” The Act includes thousands of pages of law addressing hundreds of significant American healthcare problems. Its financing requires all Americans to purchase health insurance or face a fine.
Marin General Hospital Is Now Your Community Hospital
The hospital you see from the street as you drive down Bon Air Road in Greenbrae is the new west wing of Marin General Hospital. That very striking modern triangular building - the west wing - was completed in the early nineties. However, if you turn off at the entrance and drive to the back of the hospital grounds you will see the two large hospital buildings built by the newly founded Healthcare District Board in the 1950s, just after World War II. Although those buildings were very modern at the time, sixty years later they cannot meet the state’s current seismic standards. Marin General Hospital is overdue for an upgrade to modern hospital construction. We must remember that we in Marin all live in close proximity to two major earthquake faults. The hospital must proceed with its plan for constructing a new building, not only seismically safe, but also equipped with appropriate technology and information systems. The next big commitment is to raise the necessary construction funds through a combination of a bond issue, major and smaller donations, and private funding sources in the next two years.
The League of Women Voters of Marin - recognizing the important role of Marin General Hospital in providing high quality health care for the residents of our community - began sending member/observers to the public meetings of the Marin Healthcare District Board starting back in 1985. The League occasionally presents statements about our concerns and positions. Much progress has been made in the last twenty -five years. We wish Marin General Hospital success in continuing the complex improvement efforts currently under way.
Interviews with Joh Friedenberg and Lee Domanico before the turn over of the hospital from Sutter outline the plans for MGH.
Jon Friedenberg | Lee Domanico