Local Initiatives

Protecting PATIENTS

• Upholding high standards of care by ensuring that procedures and prescriptions are kept in the hands of trained physicians, not mid-level practitioners lacking the required extra education and/or training. 
• Empowering patients by putting them at the center of their care, including advocating for quality-based physician payment models.
• In 2001, the Santa Clara County Medical Association approved for consideration, by the hospitals of this county, a model policy addressing the problem of healthcare decision-making in patients lacking the capacity to make decisions and/or lacking relatives, friends, or other appropriate surrogates.
• Ethical Principles to be Considered in Establishing Policies for Allocation of Scarce Medical Resources in a Public Health Emergency  [In Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic]

Protecting ACCESS TO CARE

• Protecting patient access to medical care, including defeating Proposition 46, which would have cost health care costs to increase by several hundred million dollars annually and caused some physicians to stop practicing or leave California due to the expected 400% increase in malpractice insurance rates that would have resulted.
• Increasing access to care for all Californians by advocating for Medi-Cal payment reform.

Improving PUBLIC HEALTH

• Fighting for a smoke-free California, including helping pass several anti-tobacco bills in the 2016 legislative session.
• Ensuring the safety of our children, including helping pass legislation that eliminated the "personal belief exemption" for childhood vaccines among public school students.