Expanding Health Care Coverage With Federal Funds In Idaho Will Create Economy-Boosting Jobs

Medicaid report jobsIf Idaho accepts federal funds to expand Medicaid coverage, an estimated 88,000 state residents will gain health insurance.  In addition, accepting the federal funding will also create jobs  more than 16,000 jobs and boost the Idaho economy, according to a new report by the Alliance for a Just Society. The report was released today by Idaho Community Action Network.

According to an analysis by University of Idaho economist Steven Peterson, if Idaho adopts the health coverage expansion in 2014, the new spending on health care services and its ripple effects will create 16,337 jobs in the state and increase total compensation by $567 million (in constant 2012 dollars) in 2024. The majority of jobs will be in the health care fields, but others will be created in food and lodging, social services, business services, transportation and construction.
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2014 Advanced Native Organizers Training

The Alliance for a Just Society’s Native Organizing Alliance is pleased to announce our annual Native Organizers Training this spring! Sponsored by the Communities Creating Healthy Environments Initiative, this is a four day intensive workshop on community organizing that covers building and leveraging people-power,76848_10202867522349938_1685908019_n campaign planning, community led policy change; and how to use our stories to win battles.

This workshop focuses on skill building while recognizing the considerations of organizing in Indian Country. Because of historic underfunding in Indian Country, organizing infrastructure is lacking. This training is an opportunity to bolster that infrastructure through relationship building, peer support and coordination with other Natives who are doing community organizing. This workshop prepares organizers for leading a community driven campaign on the issues and concerns that are relevant to Indian Country.Continue reading “2014 Advanced Native Organizers Training”

An Open Letter to the Prosecutor in the Case of Jordan Davis

Rinku Sen, president and executive director of Race Forward, wrote an open letter to the prosecutor, Angela Corey, and the legal community in connection with the Jordan Davis killing. The Alliance for a Just Society is proud to be among those adding their names to the list of signers in support. Please click the link at the end of the letter and add your name:JD km crop

We write this letter out of our deep commitment to racial equity, as well as to the principles of fairness upon which this country was built. The trial of the People of Florida v. Michael Dunn underscores the need for our legal system to understand and address racial bias. We are not all attorneys, so we will not offer a detailed legal analysis here. What we can offer, as veterans of racial equity efforts nationwide, is some reflection on the racial dimensions of the case and how they can be addressed constructively. Continue reading “An Open Letter to the Prosecutor in the Case of Jordan Davis”

Critics Overstate Job Loss in CBO Report; Living Wage Lifts Families from Poverty

Yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office released a report on the estimated effects of increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 and indexing it to inflation by 2016. Opponents of the increase have jumped on the report’s (questionable) conclusion that it would cost jobs, while many in favor of increasing the minimum wage have focused on the benefits, including lifting almost one million workers out of poverty.Min Wage v Living Wage

However, even a minimum wage of $10.10 doesn’t come close to reaching a living wage that allows workers to move beyond living paycheck to paycheck. Our 15th annual Job Gap study, America’s Changing Economy, clearly shows that $15 – $16 per hour is the minimum pay needed to support a single adult working full time.

So, here are seven reasons not to let the CBO report discourage Congress from increasing the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10, and why we actually need an even higher minimum wage:
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Affordable Care Act Reports are Missing Data on Enrollment by Race and Ethnicity

For Immediate Release:
February 17, 2014
Contact: Kathy Mulady
Communications Director
Kathy@allianceforajustsociety.org

 

Affordable Care Act Reports are Missing Data on Enrollment by Race and Ethnicity

The Affordable Care Act has great potential to shrink the racial gap in health coverage.  But we can’t tell how it’s doing without data on race and ethnicity.

Again last week when numbers were released by the Department of Health and Human Services about those enrolling in coverage under the Affordable Care Act – there was no data by race and ethnicity.

The ACA is an unprecedented opportunity to shrink the racial gap in health coverage and end inhumane disparities. How do we know who is being reached if Health and Human Services isn’t providing the data?

“It’s inexcusable. The department should collect and release full race and ethnicity data. Failure to do so suggests that HHS doesn’t see closing the racial coverage gap as a high priority,” said LeeAnn Hall, executive director of the Alliance for a Just Society.

“Our nation faces critical health disparities that are associated with race, ethnicity, culture and language. Minorities and the poor suffer more, and die sooner, than the general population,” she said.

In January, HHS released its first numbers on enrollment. More data was released by the agency February 12. Again, an analysis of enrollees by race and ethnicity was missing.

The most difficult groups to enroll are those who have never had health insurance, who speak different languages, or who have never been able to afford health insurance. They should be the first priority of enrollment efforts. The department’s own reports show that 31 percent of Latinos, 21 percent of African Americans, and 18 percent of Asian Americans are uninsured.

It is imperative to count who is enrolling – and make that data public.

Those who are working to bring information about health care benefits to minority communities need data. With these tools we can make sure no mother, father or child suffers or dies because they can’t afford to go to the doctor.

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The Alliance for a Just Society, based in Seattle, WA, is a national research, policy and organizing network that focuses on health care, economic, racial and social justice.

Hall and Smedley in USA Today: Provide Data, Expand Medicaid to Close Racial Health Divide

On the opinion pages of USA Today, LeeAnn Hall, executive director of the Alliance for a Just Society, and Dr. Brian Smedley, with the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, call on on HHS to release full data on who is enrolling – and who is being missed. They also call on states where lawmakers have turned their backs on their poorest families, to accept federal fund for expanding Medicaid.

Little girl Medicaid CropThe health disparities associated with race, ethnicity, culture and language in America are vast. Minorities and the poor suffer more, and die sooner, than the general population.

The ACA is an unprecedented opportunity to shrink the racial gap in health coverage and end inhumane disparities. How do we know who is being reached if Health and Human Services isn’t providing enrollment data by race and ethnicity?

Data or no data, these disparities demand action. If every state expands Medicaid, it could cut the uninsured rate for people of color in half. Instead, lawmakers in 19 states have rejected the funds, and six states are still debating.

Read the full article in USA Today here.

The Struggle is Real – Changing the Conversation in Montana

When the Montana Department of Corrections issued its 2013 Biennial Report , the department’s own numbers finally substantiated exactly what the community has known all along: Montana is disproportionately locking away Natives.photo (9)

One out of every five men in prison in Montana is Native American – far above the rate that Natives are represented in the state’s general population. About 36 percent of all women incarcerated in Montana are Native.

Prisons are rooted in a long history of racism and oppression in this country.

The faces of this problem are not only Black and Latino, but also Native. It’s not exclusively an urban problem, restricted to the ghettos of Chicago and New York. Rural America is also locking up people of color in disproportionate numbers.
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Get Real on Job Growth and Expand Medicaid

 A new op-ed in the Bangor Daily News, written by Maine People’s Alliance executive director Jesse Graham and Alliance for a Just Society executive director LeeAnn Hall, lays out how the Maine legislature could build more and better jobs simply by accepting federal funds for Medicaid expansion.

By Jesse Graham and LeeAnn Hall
Special to the Bangor Daily News

State lawmakers are approaching a new moment of reckoning on the decision to accept (or reject) federal funding to expand health coverage to 70,000 currently uninsured Mainers.On one side, there’s a growing body of economic evidence supporting the expansion and thousands of personal stories about the brutal effects of a lack of health coverage. On the other side, there’s Gov. Paul LePage.

While the governor’s veto succeeded in blocking this expansion last year, new reports of Republican legislators’ willingness to strike a deal suggest the governor’s campaign against expanding health coverage is looking more like a losing crusade this time around. The growing momentum toward a deal is good news not only for uninsured Mainers but also for the state economy.
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