Community Engagement March 2025 update

The Community Engagement and Communications Committee of the UHPGB met for the sixth time on March 26, 2025 for about 90 minutes.

Summary by Sandra Coyner, HCAO/HCAO-Action  (SandraCoyner@hcao.org)

The main business was a presentation by, and discussion with, Rebecca Schoon, Communications Chair for HCAO, and Michael Lighty, for 25 years with the California chapter of NNU and other work for universal health care.  People commented on topics such as terminology that seems to work better; stressing values; what’s happening in California now;  importance of listening; and some aspects of who we are communicating with.  In general, people are now showing more/new anger with the existing health care system; and physicians are no longer the same group we first worked with, many of whom were formerly in private practice–physicians now are mostly employees.

The April meeting is canceled so the next meeting will be May 28, to discuss what the consultants Patty Wentz and Diana Bianco will be doing for this committee, especially framing questions for community engagement.