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…
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…
We Are Love Warriors
The exhilaration of Easter is fading into memory, and we are left with more routine matters. Unfortunately, the matters that are becoming more and more commonplace have frightening implications: tweets, threats, tapes, etc. All should be sobering to us. We need to be taking these things seriously, but sometimes it feels like we can’t take them seriously because they are so ridiculous, yet also so pervasive. We feel like we are going crazy. This month is National Mental Health month, and I doubt that I am the only one who has…
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…
Budget’s Big Picture: A Crumbling Core
So, the question as always comes down to one of vision. The elected chieftains who decide how much money North Carolina’s state government will spend, what it will be spent on and how it will be raised must decide not only which programs and services will thrive and which will dwindle. They must decide to what degree the people of this state are truly a community, with an obligation to provide for the common good in the best interests of all. These are the core issues as the General Assembly…
2017 Stand Up Sabbath — June 16-18
About this time two years ago, I accepted the offer to become the next Executive Director of the NC Council of Churches. We agreed that I would spend two weeks with the outgoing ED in June learning the ropes, and then I would really get to work in August. My first day in the office was June 18, 2015. I had heard the news from Charleston that morning when I woke and I knew that event would forever define my first day at the office. The NC Council of Churches…
Apply for PHW Collaborative by May 31 to be Eligible for June Mini-Grant
The next Partners in Health and Wholeness Mini-grant Cycle will begin June 5. Interested congregations must apply to join the PHW Collaborative (previously PHW Certification) by May 31 to be eligible. Priority is given to projects that address one of PHW’s four cornerstones: healthy eating, physical activity, tobacco prevention and cessation, and mental health. In the past, mini-grants have been used to fund healthy church meals, community garden expansions, cooking demonstrations, exercise classes, supplies for blood pressure checks, and much more. We look forward to hearing all the creative proposals…
House Passage of AHCA — We are Better Than This
The passage of the American Health Care Act by the House of Representatives reflects a political choice on a life-or-death matter. If House members truly believed that this was the best possible plan, they could have held hearings and waited for a new score from the Congressional Budget Office. Supporters would not have been blaming people for being sick or suggesting they move states if they want different coverage. We are better than this. Our partners at the Justice Center have calculated the numbers and explained the impact the AHCA…
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…
Shine a Light on Postpartum Depression This Mother’s Day
We often struggle to address mental health in our communities of faith. This Mother’s Day, as we honor those who bring forth life and contribute so much to our communities, let us also acknowledge one of the most common complications of childbirth: postpartum depression (PPD). As many as one in seven mothers suffer from postpartum depression, and only 15% of them receive professional treatment. As a society, we already stigmatize mental illness and struggle to talk about it. But when depression arises (in about half of PPD cases for the first…
Guns on Campus Are a Bad Idea
Two of the most volatile elements on a college campus are alcohol and hormones. These ingredients contribute to sexual assault (23.1 percent of female and 5.4 percent of male undergraduates), property destruction (50 percent of college administrators from schools with high drinking levels say their campuses have a problem with alcohol-related property damage), and poor academic performance (25 percent of college students report missing class and doing poorly on exams or papers related to alcohol consumption). Most students survive all three of these, though sexual assault brings its own kind…
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…
Congress is on Recess but You Can Still Take Action
Congressional leaders are still in their home states for their spring recess, but your voices are still important. Please attend town halls held by our elected leaders, and please request town halls from those who don’t have them planned. In addition, some health advocacy organizations at the national level are urging grassroots advocates to make calls today, April 19, with two messages related to health care: That Congress should reject any additional attempts at repealing the Affordable Care Act and move on. That they should leave Medicaid alone. More detailed…