Health Access California Records, 2001-2023

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Summary

Creators:
Wright, Anthony and Health Access (Coalition)
Extent:
22.5 Linear Feet (18 cartons)
Language:
English .
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Health Access California Records, MSS 2025-22. Archives and Special Collections, University of California, San Francisco.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection comprises institutional records of Health Access California and the personal papers of Executive Director Anthony Wright. These papers document the extensive advocacy and policy work undertaken by California's leading consumer health advocacy organization. The collection features board packets, campaign folders, key agendas, and documents related to significant health policy issues such as hospital pricing, ACA implementation, Medicare Part D, and various health reform efforts. Dates range from the early 2000s to 2023.

A carton level description provided by donor is available upon request. Contact archivist for access.

Biographical / historical:

Health Access California is a 501(c)(4) organization that engages in direct lobbying and advocacy. Since its foundation in 1987, Health Access CA has made it its mission to fight for affordable, equitable, and quality health care for all Californians.

Their efforts have included attempts to expand coverage through public programs, employer-based benefits, or a universal, single-payer proposal. Throughout its history, Health Access has worked to win comprehensive health reforms at the local, state and federal level, including the efforts to implement, and improve upon the Affordable Care Act. They work to improve Medi-Cal, Covered California, and our safety net, remove unfair exclusions, and extend access and affordability help to all Californians. A few notable projects include:

- The Video Medical Interpretation (VMI) project, started in 1999 to increase language access in CA public hospitals and show viability overall. After more than a decade of work, in 2012, Health Access spins off the last part of the VMI project, now in place in public hospital systems throughout California.

- The Health4All Campaign began in 2013 when immigrant rights activists, health care advocates, and community members came together to call for expanding health care to all Californians, regardless of immigration status. Since then, the campaign has been able to remove unjust barriers to Medi-Cal eligibility and has fought to include over 1 million Californians into the program.

A comprehensive timeline of Health Access CA history can be found at https://health-access.org/history/

Acquisition information:
This collection was donated to the UCSF Archives and Special Collections by Anthony Wright, Executive Director, Health Access California and Health Access Foundation in 2024.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research. The UCSF Archives and Special Collections policy places access restrictions on material with privacy issues for a specific time period from the date of creation. Access to records that contain personal and confidential information about an individual or individuals is restricted for 75 years from date of creation or until the death of the individual mentioned in the records, whichever is longer. Access to medical records is restricted for 100 years from the latest date of the materials in those files. Restrictions are noted at the series level. This collection will be reviewed for sensitive content upon request. Contact the UCSF Archivist for information on access to these files.

Terms of access:

Some materials in these collections may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). In addition, the reproduction of some materials may be restricted by terms of the University of California gift or purchase agreements, donor restrictions, privacy and publicity rights, licensing, and trademarks. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Health Access California Records, MSS 2025-22. Archives and Special Collections, University of California, San Francisco.

Location of this collection:
UCSF Library & CKM Archives and Special Collections, 530 Parnassus Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94143-0840, US