TopLEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS ACTION COMMITTEE
AMSA PRE-MED @ UCLA
The Legislative Action Committee of the AMSA Pre-Medical Chapter at UCLA provides members with information about the many laws, regulations and policies that govern their future practice of medicine. It is vital to know how medicine practice is regulated in every way.
Meetings of the Legislative Affairs Action Committee for Spring 2009 are held: TBA
Day:Time:
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We have three areas of focus this year:
(1) LAWS AND REGULATIONS OF MEDICAL PRACTICE
These laws and regulations of medicine and medical practice include patient rights and privacy of patient medical records, the physician’s standards of 
appropriate patient care, safety protections, medical malpractice, HMOs operations, patient to nurse staffing ratios, drug safety and effectiveness, biomedical equipment use, and dozens of other standards. Our society has established these through state legislatures and the US Congress and Senate as well as many governmental regulatory agencies, to ensure the highest possible level of medical care by physicians, medical centers and other health care providers and institutions. We are having guest speakers who are physicians and attorneys in health care law at a special event in Winter Quarter 2009.
(2) HEALTH CARE REFORM PROPOSALS AND BILLS
The Legislative Action Committee is our "Information Central" point for learning about health care reform and increasing access to care for the 47 million Americans who are uninsured and therefore lack access to adequate healthcare. We have two major programs planned for this year:
An information forum highlighting and contrasting the two U.S. Presidential candidates health care reform plans and also the California healthcare reform plans by both Governor Schwarzenegger and our local State Senator, Sheila Keuhl, SB 840 that AMSA has endorsed. For this, during Spring Quarter 2008, we brought in prominent speakers from the Presidential campaigns and a representative of the California health initiative.
(3) ANNUAL AMSA "LOBBY DAY" IN SACRAMENTO FOR HEALTH CARE REFORM LAW
To support California’s health care reform bills, we will continue our great annual tradition of "AMSA's Lobby Day in Sacramento; For the past four years, AMSA at UCLA and all the AMSA chapters from California medical schools and many pre-medical chapters have sent hundreds of members on inexpensive or free charter buses to Sacramento in January, where we are given a short course in lobbying our legislators. Then we have a huge rally on the steps of the State Capitol Building, with many hundreds of us, all wearing doctors’ white coats. Finally, we keep appointments that the committee has made for us with the State Assembly members and Senators from our own home districts. We explain why those health care reform bills are important to us as future physicians and for our patients, and we ask them to support the bills for passage as new laws. This year's Lobby Day is January 11-12, 2008.
During the Fall Quarter 2008, we implemented our Action Committee's three-part Strategic Plan:
- Educate students about the plight of the uninsured in the US and California,
- Encourage their Compassion for that population, and
- Stimulate Action by students to join the effort and participate in Lobby Day 2009.
INVITATION TO JOIN AMSA'S LEGISLATIVE ACTION COMMITTEE AT UCLA
We invite you to join the Legislative Action Committee and also indicate whether you wish to establish yourself as a leader, as a Project Director for one of these three programs for this year.
What's in it for you?
- First: This leadership will equip you to apply for a higher leadership position in AMSA next year, and it also will give you the satisfaction of working for change in our healthcare -- and give you something outstanding to put on your medical school applications!
- Second: These three programs empower pre-medical students to take a stand and make an enormous difference for all Californians' health!
- Third: This committee's work gives our members and leaders many valuable contacts for your future. Some of our members have reported meeting their many national AMSA contacts when they went for their medical school interviews – some were interviewers, on the Admission Committees
- Learn about how the practice of medicine really runs: The laws and regulations that all physicians and medical centers must follow.
- Learn and help others learn about Health Care Reform bills to change the way people can access and pay for medical care in California and the US!
- Use Your Leadership Skills for Lobby Day -- Advocacy to California's Assembly and Senate by Legislative Action and Student Rally.
For information, email the Legislative Action Committee Chair, Christine Thang, at legislativeaffairs@amsabruins.org
Thank you! We are going to have a great year on Legislative Action Committee!
Go to our Lobby Day page for all the great information, YouTube Video and how to get involved for next year!
UCLA Lobby Day Registration Tops All Schools in California!
110 Students from UCLA, 595 from All of California!
We have 110 UCLA students already registered as of December 14th, including more than 45 Pre-Medical students! From all over California, there were 595 medical students, graduate students in public health, nursing students, dental students, other pre-health students, allied health professional students, and post-doctoral and post-graduate and post-bacc students: All were out in force to lobby our legislators for Universal Health Care under Senate Bill 840 on January 11-12, 2009. All this for the bargain price of only $39.99 per person!
Talk to one of the team who made a huge difference to improve California healthcare! Join the Legislative Affairs Action Committee and help organize for Lobby Day 2010 !
We are powerful! We will change healthcare for our state!
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