News and Events

Please watch us on the video “Invisible Health Care,” a short film about the Safety Net Coalition of Santa Cruz County (SNCC). Santa Cruz Women’s Health Center is a member of the SNCC which works to improve health status and access for Santa Cruz County residents who receive care through publicly-funded programs such as Medi-Cal and Healthy Families, and for the uninsured. Clinic leaders work together through the SNCC to develop solutions to address common challenges, coordinate care, share expertise and best practices and improve quality of care. The Coalition is committed to working collaboratively to achieve comprehensive accessible health care and improved outcomes for everyone in the County.

Sutter grants $200,000 to community clinics in Santa Cruz County

Sutter Health has donated $200,000 to local community health clinics to improve medical services for the poor.

Read our latest newsletter!

The Local, State and National Scene
By Patrick Meehan, Executive Director

As I write this, a historic health care reform bill just passed the U.S. House of Representatives. Unfortunately, it does not propose a singlepayor solution, and, in many ways is insurance reform and not health system reform. Nonetheless, it does promise to expand access to health care services for millions of people in this Country. Over 40% of our Clinic’s current patients are uninsured. The expansions to Medicaid (MediCal in California) that are proposed in the health care reform bill could result in a significant percentage of these patients being eligible for MediCal, and that would be good for both the patients and the Clinic. Shockingly, the legislation that passed on Nov 6 includes significant restrictions on federal funding of
women’s health services. As usual, many of the same elected officials who oppose a “government take over of health care” and want to limit the reforms, also favor a government takeover of women’s bodies and want to use this reform to restrict access to women’s... READ MORE Winter/Spring 2010

Providing health care with a net: Jennifer Hastings, Julie Hyer and Patrick Meehan

March 30, 2008

"Imagine health insurance coverage as a tightrope. Some people -- those with comprehensive, affordable coverage -- walk along it easily, but others have a more precarious perch. Some may have had coverage at one time and slipped off because of a job or life change; others never had a chance to try this particular tightrope. Those of us who fall off the tightrope for any reason know that our health may depend on the strength and quality of the safety net that is supposed to catch us. We may not give the net much thought until we really need it, and by then it may be too late". Read the rest of the article