Is the Media Listening? Do they care?

by Renee Fraser

Yesterday I spoke at a press conference in West Hollywood on behalf of United Way. A group of healthcare providers, business owners and non-profit leaders came together to urge our state government to cover our kids for health insurance. The Healthy Kids program that has been in existence is ending. The legislature and the Governor may not re-new it. That would mean 30,000 kids in LA county would not be covered.

What does this mean? It means the next time you or a friend go to the ER and there are lines of people including children waiting for earaches and flu and other conditions you will wait longer and longer. Many of those people would have seen a doctor if they had coverage - coverage which is in jeopardy right now.

As a business owner, I know it makes a difference if my employees have kids who are covered. There productivity goes up and absenteeism goes down.

So how much media exposure did we get - 3 TV stations attended -all of them for Hispanic stations. I am glad they were there. But, where were the other stations? Isn't this a problem we should all care about?