Updates – Page 12 – Alliance for a Just Society

Equity in the Balance – Press and Media Hits

Equity in the Balance

How a Living Wage Would Help Women and People of Color Make Ends Meet

November 2104

Press Releases:

Groundbreaking Report Reveals Evidence of Economic Racism

Only 52 percent of Full-Time Workers of Color Earn Enough to Make Ends Meet

Legislature Set to Ban Local Minimum Wage Laws – Bozeman Daily Chronicle – March 19, 2015
Living Wage: Walmart, Others, Don’t Pay Enough –The Missoulian – Dec. 22, 2014
Report: Montana Women,Minorities Earn Less Than Living Wage – The Missoulian – Nov. 26, 201
Families Hang In the Balance While Wages Remain Stagnant – Context Florida – Dec. 15, 2014
Study Shows Families Lack a “Living Wage” – The Daily Progress –Nov 23, 2014
Report: Full-time working Virginians lack living wage – Augusta Free Press – Nov 18, 2014
Maine People’s Alliance to push for state minimum wage increase – Lewiston Sun Journal – Nov 19, 2014
Maine minimum wage hike supporters keep pressing, eye statewide vote in 2016 – Bangor Daily News – Nov 19, 2014
Maine People’s Alliance to push for state minimum wage hike – Lewiston Sun Journal – Nov. 19, 2014
Women and minorities least likely to earn ‘living wage’ in Oregon – OregonLive – Nov 18, 2014
The Job Gap: Idaho Women, Latinos, Native Americans, People of Color Hit Hardest – Boise Weekly – Nov 18, 2014
Report finds Idaho has bigger wage gaps for women, minorities than … – The Spokesman Review – Nov 18, 2014

Quotes about the report:

Dr. Dorian Warren, associate professor of political science at Columbia University, calls the report “groundbreaking.”

“No one in the country is talking about economic racism – and here, in this report, are the numbers that clearly illustrate its existence and its impact,” Warren said. “When people talk about poverty, race has disappeared from the conversation. The economy and race have become uncoupled in our country.”

Saru Jayaraman, director of Restaurant Opportunities Centers United:

“Equity in the Balance provides a stark national picture of what we’ve been seeing over the past decade in the restaurant industry, one of the largest private-sector employers in the nation. Women and people of color bear the brunt of the country’s growing income inequality gap.”

“Increasingly, the only jobs available to all people are low-wage jobs,” Jayaraman said. “The difference for women and people of color is that they are never able to move out of these jobs and into positions that will allow them to support their families.”

Families Out of Balance – Press and Media hits

Families Out of Balance

How a Living Wage Helps Working Families Move From Debt to Stability
August 2014

Press Release:

Families Out of Balance: Living Wages Move Families from Survive to Thrive

Media

Fair Revenue a Must in Budget Deal

In Washington state, the Legislature is in special session, negotiating a budget deal. The state desperately needs funding for our schools, as the state Supreme Court has ruled that the Legislature is failing our children.Continue reading “Fair Revenue a Must in Budget Deal”

20 Years Later, Can We Finally End Excessive Policing?

The movement against police violence — a movement perhaps best summed up by the slogan Black Lives Matter — is at a turning point.

Of course, police abuse of power is as old as policing itself. Racist and disproportionate police misconduct, and violence targeted at communities of color, is just as lasting. But it seems in recent months that something is happening that points to a major opportunity for real and lasting reform.

One clue to this shift happened in the past few weeks. Amid the physical and emotional rebuilding of Baltimore following the in-custody killing of Freddie Gray and the public protest and revolt that followed, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton gave her first policy speech of the campaign season. It was a call for comprehensive police reform.

Clinton didn’t just call for small reforms, but questioned the whole logic of current police practices – calling on Congress to, “end the era of mass incarceration.” Her remarks are also surprising because they are in stark contrast to the policies enacted by her husband, former president Bill Clinton, just two decades earlier.

Then-President Clinton signed into law the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which made three-strikes a federal law, expanded the number of violations subject to capital punishment, used block grant funding and a number of other sweeping measures that advanced criminalization of everyday life.

At the time, there were about 1 million people in the prison in the U.S. Now there is 2.3 million. The 1994 Crime Bill federalized “three-strikes” laws, massively expanded the number of death-penalty crimes, created whole new categories of crime for immigrants and suspected gang members, and put an additional 100,000 police on the street around the country. Mass incarceration became the law of the land.

While policing certainly wasn’t great for black communities before 1994, since then extreme and excessive policing has been encouraged through incentives, and Congress and the President changed policing as we knew it. The lost lives from Ferguson to Baltimore are only a small hint of the devastating results.

But Hillary Clinton is not the only mainstream figure to recently come out against current policing practices. A number of law enforcement officials have spoken publicly of late about persistent racial problems in police departments nationwide.

Significantly, last year just before announcing his resignation, former Attorney General Eric Holder (the country’s top cop mind you) — declared that, “for far too long – under well-intentioned policies designed to be ‘tough’ on criminals – our system has perpetuated a destructive cycle of poverty, criminality, and incarceration that has trapped countless people and weakened entire communities – particularly communities of color.”

Now even Bill Clinton is getting in on the act, saying his wife and presidential candidate should repeal the very laws he championed, saying, “We have too many people in jail.” The admission may be a little late, but it’s a welcome change. More importantly it marks an opportunity for organizers, activists, and all communities affected by these disastrously failed policies, to redefine safety and security and change policing as we have come to know it.

But it’s an opportunity that won’t last forever. The question is whether the movements are prepared to take advantage of the moment. It’s up to us.

Racial Disparities in Health Care Access Magnified As More Gain Coverage

I was recently on a telephone call with Antron McKay-West, the president and founder of Upgrade Mississippi. He was describing the frustration people in his tiny hometown on the Mississippi Delta experienced trying to sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.

Most families in the town still don’t have Internet in their homes; cellphone reception is unreliable, it comes and goes like the clouds blowing across the sky.

“It is so rural, most people can’t imagine life there,” said McKay-West. “Most people don’t have Internet, if they do, it’s very slow. It’s not the technology most people in bigger cities are used to these days.

“I know people who were trying to sign up for health care coverage, but they don’t have Internet at home, they don’t have email addresses. When they tried to sign up by telephone, the assistants on the other end often told them to just go to the library and use the Internet there to sign up and check their email.

“In the neighborhood where I grew up, the library is 15 miles away,” said McKay-West.

His story illustrates just one of the many challenges we have in bringing health insurance — and then quality health care — to all people and all communities across the country.

As more people gain health insurance, unless we take concerted action to tackle glaring racial disparities in access to health care, those disparities will only be magnified.

In a new report “Breaking Barriers: Improving health insurance enrollment and access to health care,” author and researcher Gary Delgado provides plentiful evidence that the doors to quality health care are still closed to many people of color, families in rural communities, the poor, and those with language and cultural barriers.

Delgado, a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley’s Institute of Social Change and a longtime civil and human rights leader, led a team that surveyed 1,200 low-income people in 10 states in Spanish, Cantonese and English. The report was released by the Alliance for a Just Society.

“Obamacare didn’t cause the widespread racial disparities we found, but neither did it solve them,” said Delgado. “We have a lot more work to do.”

There is progress. In late April, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock signed legislationaccepting federal funding for Medicaid expansion that will extend health insurance coverage to as many as 70,000 more people.

However, there are still 21 other states where legislators continue to turn their backs on people – about 3.8 million people – who fall into the Medicaid coverage gap, denying them access to affordable health insurance. These are people who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to qualify for ACA marketplace subsidies or afford premiums and deductibles on their own.

It’s even more insulting when you plot these 21 states on a map. More than half are states in the Deep South, the states of the Old Confederacy, where a disproportionate share of uninsured people are people of color, especially African American and Latino.

There is no other way to describe it than health care racism. Expanding Medicaid is just the first step toward ending it.

The struggle to access quality care continues even after people of color have health insurance, including the high costs of premiums and deductibles. Many people have never had health insurance, or maybe not for years, and have trouble getting clear information about what’s included in their coverage, such as preventive care, checkups and routine tests.

Insurance companies must also be held to their obligation for reducing racial health disparities, and increase transparency in their reporting of results.

In some communities, just finding a personal doctor within a reasonable distance of your home is difficult. Going to the doctor should be no more than a 30-minute trip. Even after enrollment, technology continues to be a barrier when insurance companies expect payments online or send important notices by email.

As the “Breaking Barriers” report recommends, innovative options like school-based health care and community clinics and have to be supported and encouraged, particularly in rural areas.

Medical-legal partnerships should be developed to address environmental factors that impact health, especially in low-income communities where issues like mold in housing and industrial toxins create serious health risks.

Delgado describes the Affordable Care Act as a new house built on an old foundation, using the old bricks. He’s right, we need a stronger foundation and more bricks. We also need to welcome everyone inside to enjoy the basic human right of quality, affordable health care.

This article was originally published by LeeAnn Hall in her Huffington Post column.

MEDIA: Breaking Barriers to Health Care Coverage and Access

NATIONAL

Study: Obamacare Hasn’t Solved Health Care Disparities, April 9, 2015 – U.S. News and World Report

Is ACA Serving Those Facing Barriers? April 9, 2015 – Politico

The PPACA and Health Care Disparities, 10 Things to Know, April 10, 2015 –Becker’s Hospital Review

Study: Your Health Could Depend on Where you Live, April 10, 2015 – New America Media

“Breaking Barriers” Research Uncovers Disparities in Health Care Access, April 10, 2015 – Milwaukee Community Journal

Obamacare Hasn’t Solved Health Care Disparities, April 10, 2015 – Gnomes News Service

Difficulties People of Color Have Using Their New Health Insurance, April 17, 2015 – ThinkProgress

What it Means for Your Health When Your State Refuses to Expand Medicaid, April 20, 2015 – AlterNet

What it Means for Your Health When your State Refuses to Expand Medicaid, April 22, 2015 – One Penny Sheet

Medicaid Limits, Internet Access Create Barriers to Obamacare, April 23, 2015 – National New Journal and Guide

Your Health Could Depend on Where You Live, April 16, 2015 – The Bay State Banner

Racial Disparities in Coverage, Care Persist, Despite ACA, April 13, 2015 – Fierce Health Payer

AFRICAN AMERICAN PRESS

Blacks Missing Out on Obamacare Savings, April 15 2015 – Greene County Democrat

Blacks Missing Out on “Obamacare” Savings, April 16, 2015 – The Los Angeles Sentinel

Blacks Missing Out on “Obamacare” Savings, April 16, 2015 (page 3) – Dallas Post Tribune

Blacks Missing Out on “Obamacare” Savings, April 15, 2015 – Bayou Buzz

Blacks Missing Out on “Obamacare” Savings, April 14, 2015 – Sacramento Observer

Blacks Missing Out on “Obamacare” Savings, April 18, 2015 – Real Times Media (Pittsburg)

Blacks Missing Out on “Obamacare” Savings, April 17, 2015 – The Seattle Medium

Blacks Missing Out on “Obamacare” Savings, April 17, 2015 – The Atlanta Voice

CALIFORNIA

Health Care Racial Disparities Continue Despite ACA, April 8, 2015 – The Post News Group

FLORIDA

Minority Report: New Study Indicates More Barriers Than You Thought To Health Care Access, March 24, 2015 –Orlando Weekly

F.I.R.E “Breaking Barriers” Study recommends Medicaid Expansion, March 24, 2015 – Orlando Politics

Breaking Barriers To Health Care Access In Florida, March 24, 2015 – The Florida Squeeze

IDAHO

Report Finds Low Income, Latino Idahoans Experience More Barriers to Health Care Access, April 2, 2015 – Boise State Public Radio (NPR)

Study: 78,000 Idahoans “Let Down” by Refusal to Expand Medicaid, April 2, 2015, – Boise Weekly

Report Finds That Low Income, Latino Idahoans Experience More Barriers in Health Care Access, April 2, 2015 – Hispanic Trending

MONTANA

Report shows disparity in health insurance, access to care for Native Americans, April 24, 2015 – The Missoulian

Report Shows Disparity in Insurance, Access to Care For Native Americans, April 24, 2015 – The Helena Independent Record

Study Shows Health Care Disparities Among Minorities, April 23, 2015 – NBC Montana

Tribal Members Study “Breaking Barriers” Between Native Community, Health Care, April 23, 2015 – KPAX TV Ch. 8

Report shows disparity in health insurance, access to care for Native Americans, April 24, 2015 – Billings Gazette

LeeAnn Hall: Moving From Rage to Reform

Police violence is a national problem, and everybody has a stake in solving it

Another city has erupted in rage in response to a police killing.

After a week of peaceful protests following the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, “Charm City” was in flames. The authorities declared a state of emergency and deployed the National Guard.

In less than a year since the killing of Michael Brown by a Ferguson, Missouri police officer, numerous cases of police beatings, shootings, and killings of unarmed civilians — from New York to South Carolina, and from California to Baltimore — have grabbed the public’s attention.

Even white people like myself who identify with the “Black Lives Matter” slogan — the phrase that’s come to represent the movement against police violence — are stunned and emotionally drained by the almost daily reports of senseless killing and police brutality.

We’re tempted to turn away. But we can’t, because this issue is here to stay.

While we all condemn acts of violence, we must try to dig a little deeper to understand what’s happened in Baltimore and around the country. And we all have a responsibility to be a part of the solution — to channel this rage into real reform of the police.

Baltimore is wracked by pervasive poverty, racial segregation, and crime — a grim reality popularized for the rest of the country by the HBO drama The Wire. One in four families in the city live in poverty, nearly double the national rate.

Baltimore is also troubled by a long history of police misconduct and violence against its residents. According to The Baltimore Sun, the city has paid $5.7 million in settlementsfrom police-brutality cases since 2011.

That history helps explain the explosive reaction by a small number of people to Freddie Gray’s alleged murder by six cops charged in his death.

Gray died after having his spine severed while in police custody — without any clear reason for his arrest. Deaths like his are all too common. And police are almost never held accountable.

This time, however, the state of Maryland has leveled charges against the officers involved, ranging from false imprisonment to assault to second-degree murder. That prompted celebrations in Baltimore, but further clashes are all but certain without real reform.

What else can be done? A few things come to mind:

Racialized police practices like stop-and-frisk and “zero tolerance” policing must end in Baltimore and across the nation.

Cities should adopt alternatives to jails and prisons for nonviolent crimes. Programs like Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) in Seattle have proven effective in reducing recidivism by diverting low-level drug offenders to rehab instead of prison.

Other communities have found restorative justice effective, involving offenders in the process of repairing any harm they may have caused.

Most importantly, governments must follow the example set in Baltimore in the wake of Gray’s killing. All police officers must be held accountable for abuses such as beatings, killings, and corruption.

Many critics of Baltimore’s uprising have invoked Martin Luther King Jr.’s appeals to nonviolence. But don’t forget King’s other essential reminder: “A riot is the language of the unheard.”

The only way to show that our country has heard the anger and sorrow of black communities is to end impunity for police officers who commit acts of brutality. This isn’t a Baltimore problem or a Ferguson problem or a black problem.

It’s a national problem, and everyone has a stake in solving it.

Harsh policing and more prisons haven’t reduced crime or solved the problems of our communities. The only way to avoid another Baltimore is to overhaul standard police practices across the nation.

LeeAnn Hall is the executive director of Alliance for a Just Society, a national research, policy, and organizing network striving for economic and social equity. AllianceforaJustSociety.org
Distributed by OtherWords.org

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 Act has magnified the deep racial, ethnic and cultural disparities in accessing quality health care in California.

Latino and African Americans especially remain heavily uninsured and struggle to receive health care.

Language and cultural barriers, lack of Internet or an email address, a lack of experience in using health insurance, a shortage of doctors and clinics in poor and rural communities, and high costs are preventing many from receiving health care and medications.

A new report “Breaking Barriers: Improving health insurance enrollment and access to health care in California,” reveals a deep divide between social class, income, culture and ethnicity emerging under the state’s Covered Care.

“It’s unconscionable that so many have been left out of something as basic as the chance to enjoy good health,” said Gary Delgado, author of Breaking Barriers. “Lack of Internet access or speaking another language is not a reason to be locked out of a health system that purports to be open to all.

“Obamacare did not cause the widespread racial disparities we found, but neither did it solve them. Now we have to take them on directly,” said Delgado.

“Breaking Barriers” s a year long study that includes a survey of nearly 1,200 low-income people in 10 states in Spanish, Cantonese, and English. They were contacted at food banks, health clinics, and homeless centers.

Alfredo DeAvila did surveys and interviews for the Breaking Barriers California report.

“If the ACA is going to be successful, we need to help people transition not only into the health insurance system, but also into the health care system,” he said. “We must invest in public education about how to get ongoing preventive care.”

The Korean America community, especially seniors are struggling because of costs, said DJ Yoon, executive director of NAKASEC (National Korean American Service and Education Consortium.)

“California can be a leader in assuring quality health care for all people. We have let people of color again slip through the cracks in our system, we can do better – and here is a roadmap for how we get there,” said Delgado.

Key recommendations in the report include:

Improve language access. Make provider directories available in multiple languages and list addresses, phone numbers, languages spoken, hospital affiliations, and specialties.

Simplify the insurance-shopping experience. Make cost information transparent and communicate clearly about deductibles, co-pays, and preventive services that are included.

Covered California should enforce and impose penalties on insurers who do not reduce racial health care disparities within required timeframes.

Assure that primary care providers are within 30 minutes driving or public transit time. Enrollees who must travel further should be offered free transportation.

Expand school-based health centers, especially in medically underserved communities.

Address underlying causes of poor health, especially in poor communities, (mold, infestations, domestic violence) Expand medical-legal partnerships as an avenue toward addressing poor health in low-income communities.

Reinforce the ACA-mandated “well-woman preventive” care and provide education about the value of preventive care for all. Ensure that all plans include reproductive health care services.

Require that new enrollees are offered a free physical exam, appropriate screening tests and other preventive care within 60 days of enrollment.

Here is the link to the full Breaking Barriers in California report: https://www.allianceforajustsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/BBReport_CALIF.pdf

# # #

The National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC) brings a progressive voice to civil rights and immigrant rights issues and promotes full participation of Korean Americans in building a movement for social change.

The Alliance for a Just Society is a national policy, research and organizing network focused on racial and economic justice. The Alliance has produced pivotal reports for 20 years on state and national health issues including Medicaid, prescription drugs, and insurance industry practices.

Rompiendo Barreras: Como Mejorar el Acceso al Seguro Médico y a la Atención Médica en California

Puntos Principales

La Alianza por una Sociedad Justa es una red que provee análisis de políticas, investigación, y gestión para promover la justicia racial y económica. Durante 20 años la Alianza ha desarrollado informes importantes sobre problemáticas claves relacionadas al sistema de salud, incluyendo el Medicaid y la industria del seguro médico.

La reforma de salud, o la Ley del Cuidado de Salud de Bajo Precio, se firmó hace cinco años y fue diseñado para asegurar el acceso a la atención médica para millones de personas sin seguro medico.

Quedan algunas preguntas claves: ¿estamos logrando esa meta? ¿Quien se está beneficiando y quien se está quedando atrás? ¿Estamos combatiendo las disparidades raciales en cuanto la atención medica, o las estamos profundizando?

Eso se trata no tan solo de ampliar la cobertura médica a más gente, sino también esa cobertura tiene que abrir las puertas al sistema de salud a los chequeos, a los exámenes diagnósticos, y al tratamiento que necesitan los pacientes.

Si no se toman en cuenta los dos componentes de esa problemática – osea que uno puede tener su tarjeta de seguro medico sin que eso implique acceso a la atención medica – el nuevo sistema puede profundizar las disparidades raciales en cuanto el acceso a la atención medica en vez de combatirlas.

Para analizar esa problemática, lanzamos este estudio.

En California, el equipo investigador implementó una encuesta en tres comunidades de bajo ingreso y una serie de entrevistas con expertos (personas designadas para inscribir a gente al seguro médico, expertos en el sistema de salud, y proveedores de atención médica). La encuesta se implementó en español, inglés y cantonés.

Voy a subrayar los resultados más relevantes y luego compartir las recomendaciones derivadas de dichos resultados.

Los latinos experimentan la falta de cobertura médica a tasas muy altas, y representan sólo el 28 por ciento de los que se inscribieron en “Covered California” en 2014.

Hay varios factores. En nuestro estudio, una porción alta de los que lograron inscribirse – el 35% – reportaron que el proceso fue algo difícil o muy difícil. Eso se debe a problemas con el sitio web, y también el proceso de verificación de información, y miedo por cuestiones de inmigración en familias de estado mixto.

La división digital también presenta un obstáculo. Entre todos los grupos incluidos en el reporte, los latinos son los que menos reportaron tener Internet en casa.

Ahora, a pesar de esas barreras que meritan más atención, estamos viendo avances en la obtención del seguro médico. Pero eso solo es el primer paso. Los responsables de la implementación de la reforma de salud también necesitan asegurar que eso resulte en el acceso a la atención médica.

Nuestro estudio indica que obstáculos existen para los latinos aun cuando tienen seguro médico.

Casi la mitad de los que entrevistamos en la encuesta ha tenido que pagar de su propio bolsillo a pesar de que tenía seguro médico. Eso indica que el costo sigue siendo un problema para mucha gente.

Uno de los encuestados explicó que sigue comprando sus medicamentos en Mexico, aunque la nueva ley sí ha reducido los costos para él y su familia.

Aparte de los costos, el 20 por ciento de los latinos encuestados carecen de lo que llamamos un “hogar médico,” o una fuente de atención médica regular. Alfredo va a hablar un poco más al respeto.

¿Ahora, que se debe hacer? El reporte hace varias recomendaciones, ente ellas:

Seguir expandiendo el acceso a interpretación en el proceso de inscripción para la cobertura médica.

Invertir en programas de promotores de salud navegadores y navegadoras para que no solo ayuden con la obtención de cobertura médica sino también con enseñar a la gente de cómo usarla.

Aumentar la tasa de reembolso para los proveedores de atención primaria. El programa Medi-Cal debe pagar igual que el Medicare.

Invertir en más recursos en establecer fuentes de atención médica en las comunidades de bajo ingreso – fuentes como, por ejemplo, clínicas en las escuelas.

Esas son algunas de las recomendaciones contenidas en el reporte “Rompiendo Barreras.” Tenemos muchas herramientas para combatir las disparidades raciales – solo falta usarlas.

Today in Montana: Big Win on Medicaid Expansion

Today, Montana Governor Steve Bullock signed SB 405 into law, making Montana the 29th state in the country to expand health coverage for low-income residents through Medicaid expansion.

Thanks to this bill, up to 70,000 Montana residents who are currently uninsured will be eligible for quality, affordable health coverage for the first time. It’s a big victory for Montana families and communities. But it didn’t come without a fight.

To an outside observer, the odds may not have looked good going into the 2015 legislative session. Medicaid expansion had already failed to clear the Montana Legislature once before. And the Montana chapter of Americans for Prosperity (AFP is the flagship organization in the Koch network) was throwing all its weight behind ginning up opposition and trying to scare moderate lawmakers away from the negotiating table.

But the Healthy Montana Campaign, a statewide coalition of 10 core partner organizations working in support of Medicaid expansion, was undeterred. Through three years of disciplined organizing, the coalition sent a clear message: when it comes to quality, affordable health care, we’re in it to win it. And that’s exactly what they did.

The Montana Organizing Project (MOP), an affiliate of the Alliance for a Just Society, played an integral role in the organizing that made this victory possible, mobilizing its base of members and leaders across the state, including in rural and eastern Montana, to join the fight.

MOP and HMC partners knew it would require a large-scale grassroots effort to overcome the Koch money on the other side. So they started early. And never quit.

In 2014, when MOP ran a nonpartisan civic engagement project focusing on low-income women voters that logged 19,000 phone calls, 3,500 doors knocked, and more than 3,000 “I pledge to vote” cards. They not only boosted turnout in their target universe – they also built a list of Medicaid expansion supporters, and prepared those supporters to take action.

As the 2015 session got underway, MOP mobilized its supporters to turn out at rallies, testify at legislative hearings, make calls to key legislators, and write letters to the editor.

Leaders in the Campaign expected an onslaught of opposition from Americans for Prosperity. But at the first legislative hearing, the Healthy Montana Campaign rallied 250 supporters, including businesses and statewide organizations. Americans for Prosperity turned out fewer than a dozen people in opposition.

Through this show of strength in numbers, partners in the HMC highlighted the difference between their grassroots support from Montana families and AFP’s astroturf opposition.

That set the tone for the debates to follow. And when AFP tried to run town hall meetings in the home districts of swing legislators to drum up opposition, they got out-smarted and out-organized: the targeted legislators showed up, won the crowds over, and turned them against AFP.

The final deal on Medicaid expansion in Montana isn’t perfect. It includes some provisions the HMC strongly opposed – like mandatory premiums (up to 2 percent of the recipient’s income), a co-pay of up to 3 percent, the ability to remove people who earn above 100 percent of the poverty level and fail to pay their premiums from the program, and a sunset provision.

But the Campaign won on its two most important goals: making sure the final deal accepts all of the federal funding available for Montana, and ensuring that everyone earning up to 138 percent of the poverty level (about $16,000 for a single person) will be eligible. That means up to 70,000 low-income Montanans who’ve had nowhere to turn will be eligible for quality, affordable health coverage thanks to Medicaid expansion.

The passage of Medicaid expansion will also help small, rural hospitals across Montana – hospitals that may otherwise have faced closure due to funding shortfalls – to remain solvent, preserving access to health care for rural communities and preserving good-paying health care jobs in those communities.

The work for quality, affordable health care in Montana isn’t over, of course. While today’s signing of Medicaid expansion is a great stride in expanding health coverage, there’s still a lot of work to do to make sure getting health coverage translates into getting health care, especially for women, Native Americans, and rural residents. MOP and the HMC partners look forward to engaging in the Waiver process to ensure that as many Montanans as possible get covered and get on the path to quality care.

There’s a lot more organizing and more fights ahead to make health care reform fulfill the promise of eliminating race and gender-based disparities in health access and outcomes in Montana. The Montana Organizing Project will be in the thick of that work.

Quotes about the report:

Press Release:

Media

Connecticut

Florida

Idaho

Maine

Montana

New York

Oregon

Virginia

Washington