“Breaking Barriers” Research Uncovers Disparities in Health Care Access

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 9, 2015
Contact: Kathy Mulady, communications
kathy@allianceforajustsociety.org

(206) 992-8787

“Breaking Barriers” Research Uncovers Disparities in Health Care Access

Health Coverage Doesn’t Translate to Health Care in Communities of Color

As more families get health insurance, it’s becoming clear that despite the many advances of the Affordable Care Act, we must do more to fundamentally change our health care system. The doors of quality health care are still closed to many people of color, families in rural communities, the poor, and those with language and cultural barriers. 

“Breaking Barriers: Improving health insurance enrollment and access to health care,” is 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 pantries, health clinics, homeless centers, and other locations.

“The Alliance for a Just Society works with partners nationwide who have low income members directly impacted by our health care system, “ said LeeAnn Hall, executive director of the Alliance for a Just Society, which released the report today. “We will continue to fight to see that disparities are addressed and that these recommendations are put in place.”

Report author Gary Delgado is a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley’s Institute of Social Change and a longtime civil and human rights leader.

The report details continuing barriers to enrollment and the glaring racial disparities in receiving health care that are magnified as more people gain health insurance. Significant changes need to be made to the system. “Breaking Barriers” includes 20 specific recommendations.

“The Affordable Care Act is a big, new house built on the old foundation,” said Delgado. “We’re still not serving people of color. We need to build a more inclusive health care system.”

While failure to expand Medicaid in 22 states is the biggest barrier to ending disparities in health care, it’s not the only obstacle. For many, cost, lack of technology, language access, and the complexities of health insurance make both enrolling and getting care difficult.

Of those surveyed, 45 percent said they live with a chronic condition. In addition, 54 percent of people of color said they use the hospital or clinic for their primary care.

“One woman told me it sometimes comes down to deciding between medication and food. Her credit is bad because of her high prescription costs,” said Adriann Barboa, of Strong Families New Mexico.

Especially in communities of color and in rural towns, a lack of Internet service is a significant barrier, to signing up for coverage, receiving updates and notices about plans, and paying premiums.

In the “Breaking Barriers” survey, 41.6 percent of Latinos and 47.7 percent of African Americans said they have Internet at home, compared to 77.5 percent of white people asked.

Antron McKay-West, with Upgrade Mississippi, grew up in the Mississippi Delta.

“It is so rural, most people can’t imagine life there. Most people don’t have Internet, if they do, it is very slow, it’s not the technology most are used to,” he said.

“During enrollment, some people were told to just go to the library and use the Internet. In the neighborhood where I grew up, the library is 15 miles away,” said McKay-West.

Nearly 200 organizations from around the country have joined with the Alliance for a Just Society in endorsing recommendations in the report for making sure everyone has access to quality health care.

Recommendations include:

  • Expand Medicaid in the 22 states that have refused to accept federal funding, leaving millions of low-income workers with out health insurance.
  • Expand the role of navigators to help people move from coverage to care.Navigators will teach those with coverage about personal doctors, routine tests, annual checkups and other aspects of health care.
  • Measure results: Require plans to track health outcomes, disaggregated by race, ethnicity, primary language, gender, disability, and sexual orientation.
  • Strengthen community-based health care. Expand school-based health centers in medically under-served communities. Support community providers including clinics, individual physicians, and small community practices.
  • Expand medical-legal partnerships to address issues that lead to poor health in low-income communities such as mold in housing, contamination, and industrial pollutants.
  • Enforce access to preventive care. Ensure that all health plans cover yearly check-ups, immunizations, and screenings at no out-of-pocket cost.

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

 

 

 

 

Household Debt Is a National Crisis

Years after Toni Potter’s husband passed away from pancreatic cancer, debt collectors in her state of Washington were still relentlessly hounding her about his hospital bills.

Andrea Anderson, a young student in Oregon, has been saddled with $150,000 in college loans as she pursues her dream of becoming a social worker. She knows she’ll be paying the loans back for decades, threatening her other dreams of buying a home or starting a family.

Linda Mock of Idaho was trapped by a payday loan that quickly grew from the original $300 to more than $900 in interest alone. Trying to break free of the debt, she took out a title loan on her car and ended up losing her only transportation.

Family debt is no personal failing — it’s a national crisis. Even as unemployment declines, the debt crisis is holding back a full economic recovery and pushing more people into poverty.

That’s why President Barack Obama announced recently that he’s instructed the Department of Education and other federal agencies to do more to help borrowers afford their monthly loan payments.

That’s a step in the right direction. 

But I’d urge him to go further and rein in the lenders, banks, and collection agencies that are profiting from Americans’ debt. It’s time to stop blaming borrowers and instead hold the financial interests that created the crisis accountable.

When hospitals give big price breaks to insurance companies but refuse to work with a widow struggling to make ends meet, something’s not right.

When a federal student loan provider charges young students nearly twice the interest it charges homeowners, something’s not right.

When payday lenders can get away with charging 300-percent interest on a short-term loan to a poor family just trying to fix their car so they can get to work, something’s not right.

The explosion of predatory lenders hurts families and siphons money out of local economies. There are more than two payday-lending storefronts for every Starbucks coffee shop in the United States.

Meanwhile, more than 70 percent of the students who graduate with a bachelor’s degree leave school deep in debt. The average student loan debt totals almost $30,000 today, up from $19,000 a decade ago.

For many Americans, there’s no way out.

Student loans can’t be discharged in bankruptcy. Some states will take your your driver’s licenses and professional certifications if you fall behind in your student loan repayment.

And if you can’t afford your legal fees, you could go to jail — just for being poor.

It’s time to break the shame around debt and start putting the responsibility for solutions where it belongs: on those profiting off struggling families. That means placing fair caps on interest rates, ending predatory practices that push people further into debt, and creating a path out of debt for people who are struggling.

Recently, folks from different communities across the country came together for a national online conference, “Up from Debt,” hosted by my organization, the Alliance for a Just Society. People from Seattle to New York shared powerful and moving stories — not to gain sympathy, but to erase the stigma that further burdens families trapped in debt.

The Obama administration should investigate all forms of predatory lending, including student loans, payday loans, medical loans, mortgages, and credit cards. On the White House website, you can sign a petition asking the president to create a pathway out of debt so families can reclaim their futures.

Our children, our neighbors, our parents, the sick, and the struggling aren’t cash cows for bankers and lenders to milk. It’s time to demand solutions that help families move up from debt.

LeeAnn Hall is the executive director of the Alliance for a Just Society, a national policy and organizing network that works on racial, health and economic justice issues.

 

You Are Not a Loan – You Are Not Alone!

Debt isn’t a personal failing – it’s a national crisis.

We are standing up for those burdened by debt that is threatening their future and ours: students, homeowners, the working poor, and those with serious illness and crushing medical debt.

We are gathering the nation – inviting everyone to come together – and help us we begin building a national road out of debt.

The future belongs to all of us. Join us on Saturday to fight for it!

“Up From Debt” will connect our experiences, share our stories, and launch a national movement that addresses debt as a deep and broad problem that needs real solutions right now.

Join us for a national online conference on Saturday, March 14 – watch it live here 

What you can do right now:

Tell us your story. Fill out our brief survey on your experience with debt. We will release the results at Up From Debt. 

Spread the word on social media. Use Facebook and Twitter to spread the word about Up From Debt.

‪#‎UpFromDebt
‪#‎YouAreNotALoan
‪#‎DeclareYourDebt

Join our Thunderclap to add your voice to others the day of the event.

Declare your debt! You are not alone in being in debt. And you are not a loan! We are in this together. See what others have shared.

Watch the Up From Debt summit from your computer live Saturday, March 14.

You are not a loan – and you are not alone! People all over the country will speak in one voice to end predatory lending, and take back our future.

Obama’s New Rules for Financial Advisors a Boost to Small Business

Who advises you about your retirement account? And more importantly how is he or she being compensated and by whom?

On Monday, while representing Main Street Alliance, I found myself in the same room with President Obama and the Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez, as they unveiled some new rules that coming for those who sell retirement investment plans such as annuities, IRAs and 401ks.

We see the ads for financial advisors everywhere telling us to follow the brightly colored path, the tumbling blocks or the whales into financial security in retirement.

When you finally choose one, you could be getting sound advice and dealing with reputable brokers who put your interest first. However, it’s just as possible that your retirement financial advisor might not be working in your best interest – and it could cost you. High sales commissions, luxury perks and other incentives from high load, low yield funds to brokers – along with the cost of those big ad budgets, could be coming out of your pocket in the form of high percentage management charges and hidden fees.

My grandfather was a rail executive and it just so happens I traveled by train from Newark, New Jersey to Washington, D.C. on Monday. Standing on the dingy platform at Newark’s Penn Station, I realized it was all brand new when my grandfather’s star was rising at American Locomotive.

It had been an efficient modern system of mass transportation 100 years ago. Today, the station, tracks, even the train I rode on, are relics of the steam age. Like this country’s decrepit rail system the rules governing retirement investment brokers are decades late and billions short.

According to an analysis done by the White House Council of Economic Advisors, because of conflicts of interest, IRA investors lose between $8 billion and $17 billion in underperformance every year nationwide.

According to Secretary Perez, retirement advisers, who we trust to provide critical financial advice every day, are not obligated to look out for our best interests.

“As a result, they can steer you toward high-cost, low-return investments instead of recommending quality ones, because it means back-door payments for them … it could cost you tens of thousands of dollars over your lifetime,” said Perez.

Under the President’s direction, the Labor Department will publish a rule in the coming weeks that will require retirement advisers to put the best interests of their clients above their own financial interests.

As a small businessman I am all for this proposal. I don’t have a big firm with our own in-house financial management team that can advise me on this. I want the financial advisors I work with to be required to represent my interests.

But the brokerage industry and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are holding true to their mission of making it as easy as possible for the financial industry to syphon money out of the economy with a minimum of effort rather than to invest in and build America.

They are making arguments against the President’s proposal that are as old and run down as that train platform in Newark – they say small accounts will suffer, that they are already heavily regulated and that the market will take care of things. Don’t buy it.

As the Department of Labor has made clear, the brokerage firms will still get their commissions, they will just have to earn them on your behalf. Commercial IRA’s will still be available if you are determined to spend a lot of money on fees.

Let’s adopt this rule. Small investors will still be able to get what they need, but they also will be more confident that what they are being offered is in their best interest. You can read all the details on the White House Blog.

Clean Fuels Standard Strengthens Local Economies

Alliance Senior Policy Associate: "By sending billions out of state, we doom our economy to be more susceptible to falling apart at the seams when Wall Street has an off day"
Ben Henry, Alliance Senior Policy Associate: “By sending billions out of state, we doom our economy to be more susceptible to falling apart at the seams when Wall Street has an off day.”

Last night I teamed up with Washington Community Action Network Political Director Mauricio Ayon to testify at a Washington Department of Ecology hearing on the proposed Clean Fuels Standard, which would establish a requirement that oil refineries and distributors cut carbon pollution from gasoline and diesel by 10 percent over 10 years.

Needless to say, there are big economic benefits in adopting these standards, which incentivizes the development of a variety of clean fuels and technology solutions, like advanced biofuels, electricity, natural gas and propane.Continue reading “Clean Fuels Standard Strengthens Local Economies”

The Road to Prosperity

Road to Prosperity coverGiving Idaho Immigrants the Chance to Apply for a Driver’s License Cultivates a Future of Shared Opportunity and Success to the Benefit of All Idahoans

Read: The Road to Prosperity

This report was produced by Julie Chinitz, Ben Henry, Fernando Mejia and Sheley Secrest of the Alliance for a Just Society, and Krista Bustamante, Ana Martinez and Ruby Mendez of Idaho Community Action Network.

https://www.allianceforajustsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/2015.02_The.Road_.to_.Prosperity-report-Idaho.pdf

Alliance Statement on Immigration Ruling

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:   Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Contact:  Kathy Mulady, Communications

kathy@allianceforajustsociety.org

Alliance for a Just Society Joins Organizations Nationwide, Confident That

the Politically Motivated, Anti-immigrant Ruling Will be Quickly Overturned

WASHINGTON – The ruling today by an anti-Obama, anti-immigrant judge in Brownsville, Texas, is disappointing, but it is only a temporary setback. Immigrants and immigrant advocates have fought long and hard, and will not give up now.

U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen issued a preliminary injunction that temporarily blocks the start of the new immigrant deferred action programs, and pushes back the Feb. 18 start date for young immigrants to apply for work permits.

“We are deeply disappointed that legislators, and even a judge, continue to play political games with people’s lives. It’s inexcusable, but at this point, no longer surprising,” said LeeAnn Hall, executive director of the Alliance for a Just Society.

“This is one more bump in the road as we build a sturdy path and permanent solution that includes citizenship for all 11 million immigrants in our country. We are so close, we must continue our march,” said Hall.

Legal experts throughout the country agree that President Obama’s executive action on immigration is well within his authority. We are confident that the legal system will overturn the money-wasting and time-wasting lawsuit.

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Alliance for a Just Society is a national research, policy and organizing network focusing on economic, health and social justice issues.

In Seattle Feb. 26? Attend our Panel on Health Care Disparities

Join us on February 26!

What Will it Take to End Racial Disparities in Health Care in Washington State?

Panel Discussion in Seattle’s Columbia City on Feb. 26

Insurance coverage alone can’t overcome the histories of neglect, poverty and discrimination that created poor health outcomes for people of color in Washington. Improved access to health care and environmental intervention – especially for low-income families – are critical.

The Affordable Care Act includes initiatives to fight racial and cultural disparities in health care, it’s up to Washington to put them to use.

Lead paint, cockroach infestations, mold, pesticides and a many other environmental contaminants have been linked to illness. Many environmental causes of illness can be addressed under Medicaid. Details are available in this new report.

Join us for a discussion of the problems, and recommendations on how we can assure that everyone in our state has access to fair and equitable health care, and to healthy lives.

Panelists:

                   Moderator: Jill Reese, Associate Director, Alliance for a Just Society.

 

When: Thursday, February 26, 2015

Time: 9:30 a.m. to noon

Where: The Commons, 3518 South Edmunds Street, Seattle WA 98118 (Columbia City neighborhood – take the Link light rail!)

Audience participation will be encouraged.

For more information: Bill Daley, Alliance for a Just Societybill@allianceforajustsociety.org

Or call (206) 568-5400

Alliance for a Just Society has produced pivotal reports for 20 years on state and national health issues including Medicaid, prescription drugs, and insurance industry practices.