For more information:

Joel Diringer, JD, MPH
Diringer and Associates
P.O. Box 14822
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
Phone: 805-546-0950
Fax: 805-546-0951
joel@diringerassociates.com

Partner Organizations


 
The health of California’s agricultural workforce is essential to ensure a safe and secure domestic food supply, and to sustain our $31 billion agricultural economy. Yet, maintaining a stable and healthy workforce is challenging with nearly 70% of the estimated one million California farmworkers lacking any form of health insurance, according to the California Agricultural Workers Health Survey (CAWHS). Workers have not been getting health care and have been found to be at heightened risk for chronic disease. Fewer than half (48.4%) of the male farmworkers in the CAWHS study reported going to a doctor or clinic in the prior two years, and a high number had elevated blood pressure and cholesterol.

Health reform has enormous potential to help agricultural workers in California. However, health reform plans need to be structured appropriately to meet the needs of this low income, largely immigrant population, as well as the needs of agricultural employers who are faced with low profit margins and increasing foreign competition. Those California growers who do provide health insurance for their workers find themselves at a competitive disadvantage with growers, foreign and domestic, who do not provide such coverage. To level the playing field and to make health care services affordable to the industry and to farmworkers, we must find a way to reform the present system.
A team of farmworker advocates and agricultural industry representatives in Fresno County, the Salinas Valley and Ventura County have teamed up with the state’s largest health foundation to develop strategies to ensure that farmworkers are healthy and have access to health coverage. This project will work with the local coalitions to develop a joint vision on health coverage for farmworkers, examine the diverse approaches for health reform, and develop policy and program options on how the major health reform proposals can meet the needs of farmworkers. Through a statewide workgroup established from the coalition members, these findings and recommendations will be developed into a major policy report and disseminated in legislative and community briefings.

Goal: Health care coverage for agricultural workers

Objectives

  1. Convene strategic planning sessions with representatives of Ventura, Salinas and Fresno agricultural worker health coverage coalitions to identify issues in health reform and develop recommendations for addressing those issues.

  2. Produce a major policy report on how to address agricultural worker issues in health reform.

  3. Disseminate a policy report on agricultural worker issues in health reform in legislative and community briefings.

  4. Meet with local and statewide policymakers to educate on health reform needs of agricultural workers.
Organizations:
The three regional efforts for farmworker coverage include Fresno Healthy Communities Access Partners, Ventura County Ag Futures Alliance Healthcare Committee and Salinas Valley’s Center for Community Advocacy. These groups consist of broad-based coalitions of stakeholders with interests in agricultural worker health coverage having representatives from the following sectors: growers, farm labor contractors, agricultural worker advocates, migrant farmworker clinics, health insurance – public and private, policy analysts, and county health officials. The coalitions have retained Joel Diringer, JD, MPH of Diringer & Associates as the project consultant. Joel is a long time policy expert on agricultural worker health coverage and California’s agricultural regions. He is responsible for facilitation of the planning processes, drafting of the recommendations and report, and implementation of the dissemination strategy. Statewide funding is from The California Endowment.: Health care coverage for agricultural workers