No one seems completely clear on whether the Senate will vote next week on health care or what they will vote on if they do. That might be deliberate in part — an effort to reduce the pressure on their members who will be home this weekend. Or it could be because the Senate leadership plans to move forward with whatever seems likeliest to be approved, and that decision won’t be made until the necessarily deals are struck. What we know about every plan that has been proposed, however, is…
Revised Health Care Bill, Same Devastating Effects
Yesterday, the Senate unveiled a revised version of the Better Care Reconciliation Act. According to a report from our friends at the North Carolina Justice Center the changes, and their effects, include: Allowing consumers to use health savings accounts to pay insurance premiums, which would disproportionately benefit higher-income earners, doing little to make insurance affordable for consumers with low and moderate incomes. Offering a little more money to states for stabilizing premiums—especially when the state has to contribute a significant match up to 35 percent—does not offset the massive cuts…
Healing Miracles
Just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” — Luke 13:11-12 The House health care plan would leave nearly 24 million people without health insurance; the proposed Senate plan “only” 22 million. The numbers are so staggering we lose sight of their meaning, but consider the Research Triangle Region (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill) has…
Thursday, June 15 — NC Health Care Call-in Day
The Council’s commitment to health care as a basic justice issue dates back decades. Significant progress toward health care for all was made with the Affordable Care Act, progress toward a beloved community where everyone has enough. Unfortunately, work continues in the U.S. Senate to repeal the ACA with an alternative plan being developed almost entirely in secret. While the ACA was passed by the Senate after roughly 100 public hearings, Republicans in Congress plan to hold zero public hearings before voting on their repeal bill. By avoiding public scrutiny, they…
Heal the Sick
For more than two decades, the NC Council of Churches has called for access to health care for all. The score from the Congressional Budget Office makes it undeniably clear that the American Health Care Act takes us farther from that goal. It would put the lives of many at risk and negatively impact the quality of life for others. Its hurried approval by the U.S. House of Representatives before valuable analysis was even available implies that political gamesmanship is more important than people. It is not. The 23 million individuals who would…
2018 Budget Proposal is the Antithesis of our Call
Plenty of analysis is already happening around the 2018 budget proposal out of the White House. The Washington Post provides two helpful graphics here and here. More is being written than most of us can fully absorb, but Politico offers a key observation: On close reading, the budget is less a credible attempt to eliminate, or even pay down, the U.S. debt and more an ideological policy agenda disguised as a program of fiscal responsibility. If the proposal is, as such plans are often described, a place to begin discussion…
Urgent Action Alert: Please Call Congress about Health Care
Our allies at the NC Justice Center have put out the following action alert about efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. As people of faith, we believe that we are all equally beloved children of God. The America Health Care Act values some more than others and leaves the most vulnerable among us even more endangered. A vote is imminent. Please call your representative. From the NC Justice Center: TAKE ACTION NOW! Call Congress to Stop Trumpcare 3.0 Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives just negotiated a…
Efforts to Cut Health Care Continue in Congress
The public is opposed to efforts to replace the Affordable Care Act, but some members of the U.S. House of Representatives seem determined to forge ahead anyway. The latest version of a replacement plan for the ACA could be voted on as early as this Wednesday. As with the American Health Care Act, this would leave fewer people with insurance and stands to strip away many of the ACA’s most crucial provisions, such as requiring the coverage of essential benefits including prescription drugs, mental health services, and maternity care. Constituent…
Work for Just and Equitable Health Care is Not Finished
Every state legislator should be required to listen to the stories shared at a press conference organized this week by North Carolina advocates for health care. Anyone opposed to Medicaid expansion might learn something. Dr. Erica Pettigrew, medical director of the Orange County Health Department, shared four different cases from a single day’s work where patients did not get the follow-up care she recommended because they could not afford it. Martha Chaire explained how important Medicaid is for her son, Javi, who has complex medical needs in addition to Down…
Increased Costs in NC Under Health Care Repeal
With a House vote on the plan to appeal the Affordable Care Act as early as this week, the NC Justice Center has released a series of fact sheets that show the financial impact on state residents under the new plan broken down by Congressional district. Their findings make it clear that the American Health Care Act (the proposed replacement plan) will make insurance more expensive and endanger care for many North Carolinians: Under the American Health Care Act, the average tax credit in North Carolina will be $5,360 lower…
If a Budget is a Moral Document, Then What Does this One Preach?
The budget blueprint for 2018 released by President Trump on Thursday cuts a wide swath through programs that serve women, people of color, those of low income (for poor women of color, that would mean the same old same old), the arts, the environment, education, job creation, and science. Couple it with the proposed health plan released by Congress, and it feels like some elected leaders at the federal level want to freeze, starve, poison, under-employ, and un-inspire a significant portion of the country’s population. If a budget is a…
Who Would Choose to be Poor or Sick?
Around the release of the alt-health plan currently making its way through Congress, several elected leaders have gone where elected leaders sometimes go – blaming the poor for being poor. Perhaps it’s to assuage their consciences or justify their current proposal which would make it more expensive for those with the fewest resources and limit options for children. Maybe they spend so little time around those who live in low income that they have no idea the challenges of escaping that economic reality, including those created by government-created housing patterns…
The ACA Remains in Place; 2017 Open Enrollment ends January 31
The Affordable Care Act is still in place for 2017, and as our friends at the NC Justice Center remind us, nothing has changed for this year. Plans, prices, deadlines, and requirements to have coverage are the same. The deadline for open enrollment is January 31. To get free, expert help enrolling, visit Keep NC Covered or call 1-855-733-3711. Please continue to contact our Senators and Congressional Representatives to let them know that health care matters to North Carolinians. Those determined to undo programs that save people’s lives want to…
Healthy Churches 2020 National Conference
Pizazz. Laughter. Friends. Singing. These words describe the Healthy Churches 2020 National Conference. But, did you know that a faith and health national conference even exists? Healthy Churches 2020 held its third annual national conference in Charlotte, NC. A Balm in Gilead, a non-profit based out of Virginia organizes this conference. They develop educational and training programs for churches. They mostly meet the needs of African-American and African congregations. Furthermore, they encourage these churches to become community centers. The ultimate goal is to focus on health education and disease prevention….
2015: Our Conservatives Weren’t Kidding
For those of us who want to see North Carolina governed with the interests of all its residents in mind – not mainly the interests of the well-off and privileged — 2015 amounted to yet another slog down a disappointing path. It was the third full year since conservative Republicans completed their takeover of power in Raleigh, gaining large majorities in both the state House and Senate while Republican Pat McCrory seized the governor’s office. McCrory, now seeking a second four-year term, largely has seemed content to let top legislators…