Santa Rosa Junior College honored by Obama White House for Affordable Care Act outreach

Jan. 26--In the past nine years, the number of uninsured students on the Santa Rosa Junior College campus has decreased dramatically, going from nearly a third of students in 2007 to less than 8 percent of them in 2016, something Susan Quinn, director of the college's student health services, attributes directly to the passage of the Affordable Care Act.

"It's had a profound impact," she said.

Earlier this month, Quinn and SRJC were honored for their enrollment efforts during a ceremony at the White House.

Quinn represented SRJC on a panel alongside representatives from six other colleges designated as "healthy campuses." She was the only panelist from California.

In all, more than 350 campuses competed in the White House's "Healthy Campus Challenge," which asked colleges to engage their student bodies in innovative ways to get students thinking about health coverage.

SRJC was among less than 100 completing all the criteria laid out in the challenge, including holding ACA enrollment events, producing online content and engaging students on social media. Representatives from about 60 of those colleges visited the White House for a Jan. 13 ceremony, the last week of President Obama's administration.

Quinn and SRJC were already doing a majority of the criteria, and so entering the challenge, she said, seemed like a "no-brainer."

They regularly post about coverage options in two campus Facebook groups, hold outreach efforts at any event they can get into and send out reminders in campuswide emails. Additionally, SRJC has enrollment counselors on campus two days a week, and the stream of students coming in every week has been consistent, even though it's been six years since the ACA passed, said Yesenia Mendoza, an enrollment counselor on campus.

"Many people are surprised that we're even helping on campus," she said. "They're excited."

Since the Affordable Care Act was enacted in 2010, the change on campus and in the student body has been stark, Quinn said.

"The beauty of it is my whole career, everyone who's a health care provider has known how horrible this has been (for the uninsured)," she said. "When they had a real health care need, it was horrible trying to help them spend their dollars. You have to decide, do you do a medicine, do you do an ultrasound, or do you just forget about it."

The same goes for students who need mental health care.

"For years we would just be a safety net and hold our breath," she said. "Now we can actually refer students with coverage to get mental health treatment. ... The transformation has been really remarkable in terms of our practice here."

You can reach Staff Writer Christi Warren at 707-521-5205 or christi.warren@pressdemocrat.com.

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