We find ourselves in a better place than we might have been when it comes to health care policy. Remaining ever vigilant and recognizing that there is still much work to be done, today should be marked by gratitude that efforts to take health care from millions have, in this moment, failed. While Sen. John McCain’s vote was welcome and crucial, let’s not forget Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, who have both been bullied for refusing to choose party over the well-being of their constituents and their country. What…
What the Senate’s Motion to Proceed Vote Means for Health Care
The U.S. Senate’s vote this afternoon moves the debate forward to potentially repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. What that will look like is anybody’s guess. Senators Burr and Tillis both voted to proceed, but it is unclear what they will be proceeding to. Every proposal to come forward this summer would leave tens of millions more of our sisters and brothers without insurance. Some hybrid of those proposals seems likely, but Senate leaders do not appear to have assembled enough votes yet for any of the plans being…
July 25 Update — Senate Health Care Vote Appears Likely Today
It appears that the U.S. Senate will vote today on some sort of health care action. What they’ll be voting on, however, is unclear even to some of them. This appears to be a race so that the Senate can say that they got something done. Please call Senator Tillis and Senator Burr today. Ask their offices if they know specifically what they’ll be voting on and how they plan to vote. Remind them that none of the plans presented so far to repeal the Affordable Care Act actually helps…
Wood Pellet Plant Would Be Environmental Injustice
More than 10,000 individuals and 50 organizations have signed a petition asking Governor Cooper to revoke the world’s largest wood pellet manufacturer’s flawed air quality permit in Richmond County. At a Raleigh press conference on July 18, speakers represented prominent NC organizations such as Dogwood Alliance, Concerned Citizens of Richmond County, and Clean Air Carolina. Susannah Tuttle of NC Interfaith Power& Light was among the speakers. She said: We are called to be stewards, but are giving away our resources. Our faith calls upon us to stand with the people…
Senate May Still Vote on Health Care; Please Keep Calling
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…
Rising Up with Richmond County
“Biomass” may sound like a clean idea, but it actually means cutting down and turning trees into fuel pellets to be burned for energy — creating more carbon pollution than coal, accelerating global warming, and driving climate chaos. North Carolina’s former governor opened the floodgates to the wood pellet export industry. It tears down the very trees that capture carbon pollution and protect people’s health and quality of life, making wood pellets for export where they are burned in power stations to generate electricity. Enviva, the world’s largest wood pellet…
Doomed Veto Spotlights Budget Flaws
Presented with a new state budget that, whatever its occasional virtues, is mainly about easing tax burdens on the well-off while grinding opponents of legislative Republicans into the dirt, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper had little choice but to wield his veto stamp. Those Republicans who crafted the budget tried to taunt Cooper into signing it, noting that it includes raises for teachers and some tax breaks for middle-income earners – priorities he favors. But the governor kept in mind the larger picture and refused to endorse a budget fundamentally shaped…
With Prescription Medication, Verify Before You Buy
Would you be Surprised to know 97 percent of online pharmacies are illegitimate? The North Carolina Council of Churches has joined with Secretary of State Elaine Marshall and the Secretary of State’s Advisory Council to Combat Counterfeit Medication to launch an important new consumer safety campaign, Verify Before You Buy. The campaign works to protect North Carolinians from a growing and potentially fatal, health and safety threat – fake online pharmacies. More consumers than ever are going online to buy goods and services, even fresh groceries. Combined with the soaring…
Health Care CBO Score Proves Potential Harm
Late yesterday afternoon the Congressional Budget Office released their score of the Senate’s proposed health care plan and the numbers are extremely troubling. As our friends at the North Carolina Justice Center report the so-called “Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017” would: Take health coverage away from 22 million Americans, especially low-income older adults. Slash Medicaid funding by 26 percent with back-loaded cuts that deepen over time (leading to even deeper cuts and more Americans uninsured outside of the ten-year period measured by CBO). Increase deductibles so much that “few…
Senate Health Care Plan Released: Would Make the Most Vulnerable More So
Members of the United States Senate have released their proposed health care plan, all 142 pages of the “Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017” developed in secrecy, with a score from the Congressional Budget Office expected early next week. Meanwhile, we know it will reduce Medicaid significantly more than the House bill while cutting taxes for the nation’s wealthiest. A plan that endangers the vulnerable while benefitting the powerful goes against our most fundamental beliefs as people of faith. As experts analyze the bill’s potential impact, calls to Senators Tillis…
New Budget with Old Agenda Falls Short
By now the strategy is familiar – the strategy used by the N.C. General Assembly’s Republican chiefs to try to make a fundamentally flawed state budget appear, well, not that bad. Or at least tolerable. Or better than it could have been and perhaps even worth supporting. Here’s how it works: The Senate proposes a budget that, it almost should go without saying, carries on the Republican campaign to cut taxes. Economic growth allows for some slight spending increases, but on the whole spending is held tightly in check. Meanwhile,…
Senate Health Care Plan — Let’s Keep Calling
As the Senate continues its secret deliberations on a health care plan that will effect all Americans, the potential impact on one of the most vulnerable groups in our society – children – continues to unfold. Indications are that, in their closed-door meetings, the Senators have taken a similar approach to the House of Representatives. The plan that emerged from the House, the American Health Care Act, would cut $800 billion dollars in Medicaid nationwide. As our friends at NC Child point out, those cuts cannot happen without affecting children…
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…