Undergraduate students from the UCLA and UC Berkeley chapters of the California Health Professional Student Alliance traveled to the California State Capitol to lobby for health equity.

Jason Ford, the executive director of the California Physicians Alliance – CaHPSA’s parent organization, said the students from the chapters first began meeting in January. They spent the time before their Legislative Leadership Day conference scheduling and following up on office visits, creating one-page fact sheets and building pitches to legislators, Ford added.

Students lobbied for bills including Assembly Bill 278, which would create a patient committee to ensure patient experiences are represented in health care affordability policy, AB4, which would offer coverage for those who do not qualify for Medi-Cal but cannot afford private insurance and SB41, which would ban price spreading by pharmacy benefit managers.

Sriya Chilla, a third-year psychobiology student and legislative advocacy director at UCLA CaHPSA, said the students visited five to seven legislators each throughout the day, talking about personal stories, the importance of the bill and why the it was a necessary solution for the stories they shared.

Chilla also said UCLA CaHPSA has supported an initiative called Healthy California for All, which pushes for single-payer health care. She added that the initiative aims to combine all health insurance plans into one system to ensure equitable, timely and high-quality care for all patients.

“It was just an amazing experience that showed me that the government officials that we spoke with actually do want health care change as well,” Chilla said.

To advocate for one of the bills, a UC Berkeley student talked about their experience working in the emergency room, Chilla said, adding that the student shared that they saw a patient with open wounds crying, not because of the wounds but because of fear that she could not afford the ER visit.

Emily Nguyen, a third-year environmental science student and the president of CaHPSA, was a part of a group advocating for SB41, which would lower prices in the pharmaceutical industry. The group lobbied an office that had opposed the bill, she said.

“We ended up meeting with the chief of staff, and he basically told us that their office would be looking towards supporting the bill, and that they would keep an eye on it and look more into it, rather than just shutting it down immediately,” Nguyen said. “That was a pretty big win for us that day.”

Kathryn Richards, the program manager for CaPA, said the experience of meeting with an office directly opposed to the bill demonstrated students’ abilities to navigate new information and the difference advocacy can make.

Richards said the students see themselves as both health professionals and advocates. Being an advocate makes for a better health professional, and being a health professional makes for a better advocate, she added.

“It’s the looking – I think it humanizes people,” Richards said. “You’re looking that individual in the eye and saying, ’You represent me, and this is my story and this is why you should care.’”

Nguyen said the ability to talk to legislators and tell them personal stories makes the experience of Legislative Leadership Day different from other health advocacy experiences.

Ford said he enjoyed seeing young people get involved, as oftentimes, they are overlooked in advocacy.

“Organizing a lobby day is difficult, but also just going up to your legislator’s office in the county that you live in can be an important form of advocacy in whatever issue you feel is important to you,” Chilla said. “They definitely do value our opinions, our insight, our specific lived experience, so I would encourage anyone that wanted to advocate for any issues, to feel the power to do that.”