Key Issues

Daniel McCrimons, MD speaks at the NO on Measure C Press Conference on February 15, 2024.  He is joined by Ravinder Khaira, MD, Richard Jones, MD, and representatives from other organizations opposed to Measure C in Sacramento.

With the CMA, SSVMS has fought for issues crucial to the practice of medicine, including:

No on Measure C - City of Sacramento

• Steinberg on business tax: 'I don’t think Measure C is going to pass' (Sacramento Business Journal)

• Sacramento Health Care Professionals Launch Urgent Campaign to Oppose Measure C (Press Release)

• CMA and SSVMS work together to oppose surprise attack on physician practices

• What businesses need to know about Measure C, the controversial business tax measure on Sacramento ballots (Sacramento Business Journal)

• SSVMS Board of Directors Unanimously Endorses No on Measure C

• Call to Action - Stop Tax Hikes on Your License!

• Sacramento family speaks out against Measure C, urging residents to vote ‘no’ (Sacramento Bee)

• A tax on the March ballot could help an ailing city of Sacramento, if it’s legal (Sacramento Bee)

• Licensed professionals would see higher taxes if Sacramento ballot measure passes (Sacramento Bee)

  Protecting Access to Care

• Increased Medi-Cal provider payments through the Proposition 56 Tobacco Tax Initiative.

• Increased Graduate Medical Education funding to provide more residency slots in California

• Physicians for a Healthy California launched Cal Health Cares to provide $220 million in medical student loan forgiveness. In exchange, providers pledge to accept more Medi-Cal patients for a five-year term.
• The SSVMS SPIRIT program has provided $14 million in donated services to the Greater Sacramento Region’s uninsured.

Medicare Reform & Priorities

• Repealing the 3.4% Medicare reimbursement rate cut that went into effect January 1, 2024. Learn more.
• Repealed Medicare’s flawed Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR), resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars to physicians nationwide over the coming decade.
• Eliminated Medicare's Geographic Practice Cost Index (GPCI) inequities, resulting in increased Medicare payments to physicians practicing in the Sacramento Region starting in 2017.

Protecting Physicians

• Successfully included California physicians into the Public Student Loan Forgiveness Program. Learn more.
• Successfully stopped bills that attempted to erode California’s ban on the corporate practice of medicine and protected Medical Staff Self Governance.
• Stopped several legislative attempts to expand the scope of practice of allied health professionals.
• CMA’s Center for Economic Services (CES) successfully recouped more than $40 million from payors on behalf of member physicians.
• SSVMS actively participates in the Health Authority Commission to monitor Medi-Cal plans in Sacramento County.

Protecting Public Health

• Opioids - Trained more than 3,000 Sacramento residents in NARCAN administration to reverse an opioid overdose. SSVMS is the executor of the Sacramento County Opioid Coalition.
• Tobacco - Successfully passed a sweeping series of tobacco control bills — including taxation on all tobacco products and raising the legal age to purchase tobacco from 18 to 21 — saving countless California children from a deadly, lifetime addiction to nicotine.
• Childhood Vaccinations - Sponsored a successful bill that eliminated the personal belief exemption from school vaccination requirements, barring parents from skipping their children’s school-required immunizations unless they have a medical exemption from a physician. Since the bill passed in 2015, kindergarten immunization rates have gone up dramatically.