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Roseland Community Club House
929 Sebastopol Rd
Santa Rosa, CA

The Boys & Girls Club of Sonoma-Marin operates thisjust completedfacility. It is filled with classrooms, recreation space & meeting rooms. It will be a valuable resource for the Roseland community, especially the young people. Our league is eager to find ways to engage with this community primarily through our youth outreach and voter education.

The event is free, but you do need to register. Click on button above or go to our website athttps://lwvsonoma.org. Click on the calendar and register. It’s simple.

Bring a small dish to share with us if you’re able. A staff person will tell us about plans for the Club House followed by a discussion of how the LWV might become involved. This is an exciting opportunity for our league, and we hope you will join us. If you have questions, please contactprogram@lwvsonoma.org

Meeting Details

Can Democracy Survive Disinformation?

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Mark your calendar! Our monthly meeting on Monday, October 23^rdwill feature an international authority on the impacts of disinformation on democracies around the world,Nina Jankowicz.

Are you concerned about the corrosive influence of disinformation on our democracy? She has advised governments, international organizations, and tech companies; testified before the United States Congress, and European Parliaments. Her book: “How to Lose theInformation Wars: Russian, Fake News and the Future of Conflict” was named a “New Statesman 2020 book of the year.”

Last year, President Biden appointed her to chair the Department of Homeland Security’s newly formed Disinformation Governance Board. Immediately, both the new Board and Nina herself became the targets of a relentless, intense, and very nasty disinformation campaign resulting in the Board being put on hold. Nina was very alarmed at the vicious threats to herself and her family, and eight months pregnant at the time, chose to resign.

As Nina put it, “.…we all need to stand up against these sorts of lies, no matter what your political party is, no matter what political inclination you have, this is a threat to democracy.”

Newly back from a trip to the Ukraine, Nina will be talking to us on Zoom from Washington at our Monthly Monday League Meeting onMonday, October 23 at 11:30am. So, mark your calendars.

The event is free, but registration is required.

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• Meet new people, make professional contacts and develop lasting friendships as you engage with others in League who share your interests
• Have help when working on issues and concerns
• Discover new interests, develop new skills and enhance existing skills, including:

o Developing and increasing leadership skills
o Building collaboration skills
o Learning about engaging in civil discourse

• Learn about

o Voting rights and elections security
o Crucial issues in your community
o Working in partnership with others
o Community outreach
o Access to league resources and information

• Have Opportunities to

o Contribute valuable service to our community
o Gain knowledge and experience through the study and discussion of timely and important topics
o Participate in local, state, and national League work
o Advocate for change on important local issues

Looking for more ways to defend democracy? Communication is an importantpart of the way the League executes its mission. And this is work that you can often do at home and on your own schedule.

We work on several fronts, Voters Edge, social media, email, and of course our website, and there are jobs available both large and small. We need more hands to both lighten the load and extend our reach.

Training is available and don't believe that this is something you need to be young to do. Most of us currently working on our online communication refute that.

Please join us for the Communications Committee Meeting on September 21 at 1:00 pm.

Link to Meeting

Or contact Juanita Roland atcommunications@lwvsonoma.org

Our Present, Broken Healthcare system is “Profitized” Medicine

I recently read a letter written byKevin D. Roberts of the Heritage Foundationwarning of the dangers of Socialized healthcare.The concept of completely socialized medicine means that thegovernmentprovides all aspects of health care:

• It pays for all care.
• It employs the providers.
• It runs the facilities.

I would like to pose that we are presently living in a system of “Profitized” Medicine. Instead of the government, our “Profitized” system is run by the for-profit insurance companies. According toStatista, in 2022, 45%of people in the United States received healthcare throughprivate insurance companiesas opposed to24% for Medicareand19% for Medicaid.

Pays for all care:Humana, one of the largest insurance companies, had a banner year in 2022 with $ 2.8 billion in profits, paying $448 million in dividends to shareholders and more than $ 17 million in compensation to its CEO. Part of their profit is related to systematically overbilling Medicare for its Advantage programs. In addition, Medicare Advantage plans have higher claim denial rates and more prior authorization restrictions than traditional Medicare. In 2018 regulators found that nearly one in five payment requests rejected by Medicare Advantage plans were wrongfully denied, representing an estimated 1.5 million claims.

It employs the providers:At present70% of physiciansare not independent practitioners butemployeesof insurance companies or large hospital chains. It has been reported that in 2021, 117,000 physicians left the work force while fewer than 40,000 joined it. During the pandemic physicians watched as their hospitals nearly fell apart because of inadequate personal protective equipment and underinvestment in our public health system. Today’s physicians are not suffering from burnout but from “moral injury”, first defined in the military as “An emotional wound sustained when in the course of fulfilling their duties, a person performs acts against their core values”. Our physicians are not happy campers!

It runs the facilities:And now we come to the third part of our “Profitized” Medicine, Hospitals, which represent one of the monopolies of healthcare. At present, the 40 largest health systems own 2,073 hospitals, roughly one-third of all emergency and acute-care facilities in the United States. The top 10 health systems own a sixth of all hospitals and combine for $226.7 billion in net patient revenues. (Forbes, January 16, 2023). Because of the excessive Medicare dollars available, Private Equity is now a player in hospital ownership. In 2018 Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia was purchased by Paladin Healthcare, a private equity firm. Unfortunately in less than two years the hospital was bankrupt and closed.During that year private equity firms spent $10.4 billion buying hospitals and clinics.

As we prepare for the fall blitz of advertising for Medicare Advantage programs we should take note of Wendell Potter’s (Former Cigna executive) proposed warning:

WARNING: THE SURGEON GENERAL HAS DETERMINED THAT MEDICARE ADVANTAGEPLANS CAN BEHAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH AND BANK ACCOUNT.

Registering Sonoma County youth is the main objective of the Sonoma LWV Youth Outreach Committee. We are reaching out to schools to schedule both ourHigh School In-Classroom Voter Education and Voter Registration Programand ourCollege LWV Elections Ambassador Program. The good news is that in an off-election year, there are no pressing deadlines so we can register students anytime. The bad news is that in an off-election year there are no pressing deadlines so high schools and colleges need to be convinced that this is a timely need.With that in mind, our committee has been diligently reaching out to both high schools and colleges to gain class time and exposure for our programs.

The High School In-Classroom Voter Education and Voter Registration Programsent out a “Happy 18^thBirthday” poster along with a letter of introduction and a program flyer to 16 county high schools. We are following up this mailing with phone calls to the school principals as well as history, civics and government teachers to schedule our sessions. So far, we have pending dates with Petaluma High.

On top of these efforts, committee members Elaine Covell and Nancy Lewis have already scheduled sessions at West County High! Yay!

The College LWV Elections Ambassador Programis also moving forward. Our new intern Tessa Vandenberg has successfully contacted Sonoma State University’s Student Association about collaborating on their Voter Registration program. Plus, we have a whole team of committee members reaching out to Santa Rosa Junior College to get this peer to peer voter registration program rolling there.

We will be extending National Voter Registration Day to Wednesday, September 20^thwith a tabling event on Sonoma State University campus. Tessa and I will be there promoting the LWV Elections Ambassador program and registering students. Members are always welcome to lend a hand. Come by the Student Center from 11am to 1pm. We’d love to see you!

Getting into schools and onto college campuses takes perseverance and commitment. I’d like to thank everyone in the Youth Outreach Committee for all your efforts!!

New members are always welcome.

If you’d like to participate in the events or learn more,

contact Lynn Dooley atyouth@lwvsonoma.org.

WE ARE EXTENDING NATIONAL VOTER REGISTRATION DAY

WITH A TABLING EVENT

AT SONOMA STATE UNIVERSITY

On Wednesday, September 20^th, 11am to 1pm

In front of the SSU Student Center

Our intern Tessa Vandenberg is holding a tabling event in honor of National Voter Registration Day. Here’s your chance to visit SSU and register students to vote. If you are interested in joining the fun, contact Lynn Dooley at youth@lwvsonoma.org.

The Student Center is #34 on this map:

Link to Map

September 9 Board Meeting

Membership:The Board spent time discussing the many aspects of League membership including recruitment, retaining and renewals. We also went over the new membership brochure and making the website more user friendly.

Communications:We are developing a new committee to streamline all the communications to members and the community. If you are interested in helping, please contact Juanita Roland, commmunications@lwvsonoma.org. Many of these tasks can be done from your home.

Youth Outreach:Headed up by Lynn Dooley, there are many exciting opportunities to register high school and college students to vote. Our new intern is heading up activities at SSU. If you can volunteer at your local library to register voters, please contact Donna Roper.

Programs:Leona Judson and Judie Coleman have organized some great member meetings including the Kick off at the new Boys and Girls club in September, a member of Obama’s staff for October and civic classes in the Spring. Check out the calendar section on the web page. The League is also partnering with Listening for a Change to host Embers of Awakening movie on November 11^th.

Advocacy:Jim Masters and the climate committee have been really busy getting the word out about water issues which also involve tree ordinances and other climate related issues.