Health Care

As a result of Lake County United’s continued effort to establish relationships with power players who share an interest in diverting those who are mentally ill from jail, LCU helped build the strong support necessary to win a unanimous approval of a 146-bed behavioral hospital in Waukegan, IL. The hospital will be owned by U.S. HealthVest, and will have all the elements of a much needed crisis stabilization unit.

To the surprise of many, both Louisiana Senators voted in favor of two health care measures that would roll back Medicaid funding.  In response, Together Louisiana publicly reminded one of the Senators of his Medicaid promises:

“Sen. (Bill) Cassidy has shown, in a way that has been refreshing and sometimes surprising, intelligence, thoughtfulness, content knowledge and compassion in his assessments of the realities of the health care bills as they’ve worked their way through the House and the Senate.  He has said in many occasions and many different forms, in small settings and large settings, including face to face interviews and to members of Together Louisiana, that he would not support the Senate bill in the current form because it was too devastating an effect on individual people and on health care markets. And yesterday he voted for that bill....”

Beware Arizona. The potential restructuring of Medicaid, as approved by the House and undergoing secretive deliberations in the Senate, will cause irreversible harm.

Close to 500,000 Arizonans will lose health care coverage, endangering lives and undermining an open public process.

As clergy leaders with the Arizona Interfaith Network, we are profoundly concerned that the proposed changes under the American Health Care Act would affect virtually every dimension of family life, especially for middle and lower income families.

From caring for people in our congregations, we know that Medicaid saves lives….

Over 900 people filled the sanctuary and two overflow rooms at Bethel AME Church in Jamaica Plain to call on elected officials to work with Greater Boston Interfaith Organization...

On his first full day in office, newly elected Governor John Bel Edwards made good on a pledge to ‘Together Louisiana’ to expand Medicaid. Edwards signed the executive order for this expansion flanked by Together Louisiana leaders Fr. Rick Andrus, Rev. Patti Snyder, Ms. Pat LeDuff and Ms. Alma Stewart (with LA Health Equity). The expansion is expected to provide healthcare to an additional 300,000 Louisiana residents within the next six months....

With open enrollment starting Saturday for the second year of the online Affordable Care Act insurance exchange, a recent report shows that Common Ground Health Care Cooperative added the most enrollees of Wisconsin insurers in the first year....

Cathy Mahaffey grew up in small town in southwestern Wisconsin along the Mississippi River, where she learned to fish — a passion she still shares with her two sons and husband, Tim.

Away from the water, the Mahaffeys form a health insurance power couple as both Cathy and Tim lead separate Wisconsin-based health insurance organizations. She looks and sounds like a businesswoman in her professional attire and expertise in referencing insurance industry lingo.

Claretian Father Bruce Wellems, pastor of San Gabriel Mission, testified that increasing funds to cover the “residually uninsured” [undocumented residents] is “the right thing to do. It’s the just thing to do. It’s a good investment and will save money in the end. We think it should be done right, and we don’t want to create a waiting list during the year.”

After identifying $11 million in otherwise sunsetting County funds, One LA-IAF leaders testified to the Board of Supervisors about their year long enrollment effort and the the gaps that remain even after the implementation of the Affordable Care Act...

White House press secretary Jay Carney responds: “Dallas is one of the 10 cities with the highest rates of uninsured residents that participate in the federal marketplace, and Dallas has one of the most active groups in the community working on enrollment and outreach efforts.  President looks forward to meeting with these folks who are playing such an important role in the outreach effort to make sure that Americans who are uninsured get the insurance that’s available to them...