A 14-year-old girl accompanies her Somali-speaking father to his medical appointment. Because the clinic doesn’t provide an interpreter, the girl has to inform her own father than he has been diagnosed with cancer. She remains his interpreter through eight years of treatment, sometimes hiding information to protect him from the bad news. A group ofContinue reading “It’s a Matter of Life and Death: Insurers Must Cover Language Services”
Tag Archives: health
Defending Planned Parenthood is Essential for the Whole Progressive Movement
(This opinion by LeeAnn Hall was originally published in Common Dreams) Planned Parenthood is an easy target for rage and righteousness as we saw too plainly in the shootings in Colorado Springs late last month. The ongoing conservative attack on Planned Parenthood funding depends on the same extreme rhetoric but, it’s also part of aContinue reading “Defending Planned Parenthood is Essential for the Whole Progressive Movement”
Health Insurance Is Great – Navigators Needed to Help People Use It
This spring, Adriann Barboa and her colleagues at Strong Families New Mexico went on a five-county tour, fanning out across the state to share findings from the Breaking Barriers study they’d conducted on progress under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The report is part of a ten-state series by the Alliance for a Just Society.Continue reading “Health Insurance Is Great – Navigators Needed to Help People Use It”
Take Down the Confederate Flag – And Raise Up Medicaid Expansion
This opinion piece by LeeAnn Hall was originally published in Huffington Post. It’s tempting, this summery week, to sit and savor the sweet victory that was handed us by the Supreme Court in late June with the King v. Burwell decision. The court’s ruling protected the health care subsidies that allow 6.4 million people toContinue reading “Take Down the Confederate Flag – And Raise Up Medicaid Expansion”
LeeAnn Hall’s Statement on King v. Burwell (with Fred Azcarate and George Goehl)
Today is a major victory: the Supreme Court rejected King v. Burwell, an attack against the Affordable Care Act that attempted to deny quality health care to millions of people in the United States. Together with Fred Azcarate, executive director of US Action and George Goehl, executive director of National People’s Action, I would like toContinue reading “LeeAnn Hall’s Statement on King v. Burwell (with Fred Azcarate and George Goehl)”
Report: Racial Health Disparities Magnified in California Under ACA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, May 5, 2015 Contact: Kathy Mulady, communications director kathy@allianceforajustsociety.org (206) 992-8787 Breaking Barriers to Health Care Access in California “Obamacare didn’t cause the widespread racial disparities we found, but neither did it solve them.” More Californians than ever before have health insurance, but coverage isn’t care, and the Affordable Care ActContinue reading “Report: Racial Health Disparities Magnified in California Under ACA”
Report Card: States Rejecting Medicaid Expansion Get Poorest Grades on Women’s Health
The Alliance for a Just Society has released a Women’s Health Report Card that reveals which states get poor and failing grades when it comes to women’s health and to ensuring access to quality, affordable and timely health care – important measures of states’ public health infrastructure. The report card is here: https://www.allianceforajustsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/50-State-Rankings-and-Grades-Table.pdf The fullContinue reading “Report Card: States Rejecting Medicaid Expansion Get Poorest Grades on Women’s Health”
Legislators Who Block Medicaid Expansion Are Stiffing Veterans Out of Health Care
** This article by LeeAnn Hall first appeared in Huffington Post ** The scandal over long wait times for veterans in the Department of Veterans Affairs health system has grabbed a lot of headlines and elicited a lot of righteous anger – as it should. America’s veterans deserve so much better. But as Ezra KleinContinue reading “Legislators Who Block Medicaid Expansion Are Stiffing Veterans Out of Health Care”
Who’s Really Behind the “Voice of Small Business?”
*This article was originally published in The Hill * How much does it cost to rebrand a fee levied on health insurers as a “HIT on small business”? Well, $1.593 million, according to this exposé in the New York Times a few days ago. A little background: a provision of the Affordable Care Act levies a feeContinue reading “Who’s Really Behind the “Voice of Small Business?””
Poor, in Prison – and Pregnant
As poverty levels in the U.S. increase, safety nets are slashed, and families are left with few options for survival. As a result, more people are forced into difficult economic decisions, including alternative street-based economies and crime from sheer economic desperation. Many of these people are women and mothers. Among women who are fortunate enoughContinue reading “Poor, in Prison – and Pregnant”