by JB Fenix, CaPA Fellow

On Monday, January 11th, over 1,000 people rallied for California Single Payer on the steps of the Sacramento Capitol building. Following the rally, 500 health professional students from over 20 different California campuses, and ten different professional programs held over 90 legislative meetings. Through their efforts, state single-payer gained at least 3 additional co-authorships and a fresh cohort of legislators and staffers were educated in the midst of a pessimistic national debate.

The event was preceded by a six-hour training day on top of 8-hour bus rides for half of the students who left Southern California at 4 a.m. on Sunday morning. The two-day CaHPSA “Lobby Day” event was itself preceded by over 10 statewide conference calls, two regional conferences (with many days of preparation each), multiple press releases from the student media team, one leadership conference, and countless hours of work from local campus student teams including speakers’ series and fundraising drives. The event will be followed-up by selecting statewide student leaders, and campus student teams; by holding regional and campus training workshops; and by continuing to build partnerships with pro-single payer organizations and in key legislative offices through, with a little luck, summer student internships.

All of this should be seen as a phenomenal success, especially considering that it is 100% student run and that the students receive little if any support for their activities. So how can we explain such success amidst an unfriendly environment and when reform at the national level is struggling so dismally? And how can this success be replicated in other states? Two words: Enthusiasm and Organization.

Let’s start with enthusiasm. No one can go to CaHPSA Lobby Day and not come down with a case of infectious enthusiasm. Students sit through hours of preparation and vigorously engage in discussions with often unfriendly opponents of healthcare reform and come away more excited than ever. Young health professionals, with little or no previous exposure to any policy, effectively engage in the democratic process and come out the other end ready for more.

How does this happen? The first step is building enthusiasm at the campus level to get people to the event. This is usually a process of having strong single-payer speakers visit each campus at least once, with follow-up and endorsement from well regarded local student leaders. The leaders get involved because they have real control over the event and input into the formation of the activities. The final push to register students for the lobby day builds on this foundation and is often a combination of blast emails and appeals to friends and social networks. Once at the CaHPSA Lobby Day, the enthusiasm continues because the training day speakers are engaging, the community supporters at the rally are boisterous, and we have an unlimited supply of coffee. And most importantly, learning that you can actively engage in the democratic process is fun! And being well prepared with a group of your peers beforehand to knock down the arguments of your opponents feels great! (This should be seen in contrast to events that are not student led, where students play a secondary role in joint student-physician teams, or where the students feel poorly prepared, or discouraged by not having autonomy over their student group.) By being empowered to make decisions, we are learning that our actions today make a difference tomorrow.

Equally important to enthusiasm is organization. Lobby Day would not be possible without active campus teams and statewide coordination. And of these two, some form of active campus leadership/organization is especially important. In fact, on campuses where we are unable to establish a team or at least a first contact, we often lose the participation of the entire campus even if our event makes it to their local listserv. Over the past couple of years, the existing infrastructure of AMSA campus chapters has been key to our success, but as we try to continually expand beyond the medical student population to other health professional students and students in general, a new form of organization is emerging: CaHPSA, or the California Health Professional Student Alliance. Because we are “campus-based,” CaHPSA ties into the fundamental unit of identity for most students: the on-campus community.

A final essential component of our organization’s success has been community partnership. California Chapter of PNHP, the California Physicians’ Alliance, California School Employee’s Association, California Nurses Association, California OneCare, California Alliance of Retired Americans, Single Payer Now!, and others have been essential community partners both helping us with material supplies and cheering us on at the CaHPSA Lobby Day Rally. As we continue to grow our organization it will be crucial to maintain and further develop organizational partnerships with community partners who each bring their own high levels of enthusiasm and strong sense of organizational identity.

Lessons learned? Incredible success is possible by mobilizing students. And two keys to this success are enthusiasm and organization.

Educate. Advocate. Grow.