![]() Her younger sister, Venice Brigham, recalled that Tangerine Brigham was a glasses-wearing, quiet bookworm who was picked on sometimes for being smart and getting all her school work done.Īnd then there was the name - which came from the Johnny Mercer song "Tangerine" - and the teasing it sparked. Overcoming obstacles isn't new to Brigham. Katz and other city officials say the program won't work without that component, but members of the restaurant association say their profit margins are so narrow, they'll have to shut down.īrigham said she's moving forward - quickly - regardless of the lawsuit. The Golden Gate Restaurant Association has sued the city, seeking to block implementation of the employer-contribution part of the plan. Universal coverage is projected to cost $200 million a year - with the expectation it will be paid for with public funds, employer contributions and copayments by people enrolled in the program. ![]() ![]() If all goes well, San Francisco will be the first major city in the nation to provide health care coverage for its uninsured residents - 82,000 by some estimates - who earn too much money to qualify for Medi-Cal, the state's public health care insurance program. "When you've got a deadline, you've got a deadline," she said matter-of-factly. In typical Brigham fashion, she has absolutely no doubt it will all get done - and on time. That speed and determination is what Katz figures he needs to turn the politically popular, yet pragmatically complicated notion of universal health care into a reality in San Francisco.Īfter many pleading phone calls from Katz and a lot of "inner turmoil" on the part of Brigham, she eventually agreed to return to the health department last Oct. "She doesn't think there's anything special about it or extraordinary about it - she just wants to know why everybody else is moving so slowly." that is just much, much faster than everyone else," said Katz. She also is known to drive documents to Sacramento herself rather than rely on Fed-Ex as her lifeline to the state capital - and then be back in San Francisco by the start of everybody else's workday. perhaps not unusual for West Coast stock market traders but definitely a little unusual for government work. Brigham has been known to return phone calls at 5:30 a.m. She left to enter the nonprofit world, but was never far from the mind of her former boss.Īfter all, it's hard to forget someone who colleagues joke must be the one who officially opens the Bay Bridge every morning because she's often at the office by 6 a.m. "To really make a July 1 deadline, I would have to have Tangerine" said Mitch Katz, director of the Department of Public Health, who spent months last summer wooing Brigham to take the job of implementing the cutting-edge San Francisco Health Access Program.īrigham, 45, worked at the health department from 1993 to 2001, beginning as a finance planner and leaving as the director of policy and planning reporting directly to Katz. She's Tangerine Brigham, an Oakland resident who overcame a childhood of foster care and food stamps to become a go-to player in the world of Bay Area nonprofits and San Francisco city government. Photographed Januin the Department of Heath building at 101 Grove Street.Ĭhris Stewart / The Chronicle Tangerine Brigham MANDATORY CREDIT FOR PHOTOG AND SF CHRONICLE/ -MAGS OUT Chris Stewart Show More Show Less ![]() Brigham is the new deputy director of the San Francisco Health Department. Tangerine Brigham delivers a presentation about the city's health access program during a meeting of the Health Commission. Chris Stewart Show More Show Less 2 of5 TANGERINE18_0163_cs.jpg Tangerine Brigham works to implement the city's Health Access Program from an office across from City Hall. Photographed Januin the Department of Heath building at 101 Grove Street.Ĭhris Stewart / The Chronicle Tangerine Brigham Brigham is the new deputy director of the San Francisco Health Department and the director of the city's health access program. ![]() Tangerine Brigham works in her office across from SF City Hall. ![]()
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