CWDA is collecting stories from county human services agency staff, our statewide and community partners and clients as part of our collective effort to educate congressional representatives, local policymakers and the public on the tremendous and numerous benefits the Affordable Care Act, particularly the expansion of Medi-Cal eligibility, has had in our communities. These stories will help us explain why the repeal efforts Congress is currently undertaking at the federal level would be devastating not only to the people we serve but also to local county economies.

We need your assistance in collecting effective stories. Relaying and submitting stories is intended to be simple: explain your knowledge of a client’s situation and your experience helping the client just as you would to a spouse or friend. Or share your story of how Medi-Cal has improved your life. Stories will be used in testimony, conversations with congressional representatives and staff, blogs and social media. County names will be used in stories; client demographic information such as ages and work status is helpful to include, but identifying information is not needed now. If follow-up information is needed on the story, CWDA will contact the person who submitted the story directly.

The types of stories that we need the most for this effort include:

• Parents of children with special needs such as families on DDS waivers
• Foster youth who under ACA now have coverage up to age 26
• Childless adults, particularly self-employed clients, who became eligible under the expansion
• Long-term care cases where ACA implementation has helped bring them into zero share of costs or lowered their costs
• Transition and mixed cases where family starts on Medi-Cal but moves to APTC, or vice versa
• Cases from the Central Valley (Stanislaus, Tuolumne, Merced, Madera, Fresno, Tulare, Kings, Kern), the far Northern Region and Inland Empire (San Bernardino, Riverside) where we have a high percentage of county population on Medi-Cal and Republican representatives in Congress – or stories in districts with moderate Democrat members. Use this website to learn more about your representatives and counties/regions.

Deadline for submission is February 8. You can submit online here or directly to Sarah Jimenez . Contact Sarah by email or phone at (916) 443-1749 if you have any questions.