When a Job Disappears,
So Does the Health Care
by Robert Pear (Ashland, Ohio)
Excerpted from The New York Times
“As jobless numbers reach levels not seen in 25 years, another crisis is unfolding for millions of people who lost their health insurance along with their jobs, joining the ranks of the uninsured.”
- About 10.3 million Americans were unemployed in November, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- The number of unemployed has increased by 2.8 million, or 36 percent, since January of this year, and by 4.3 million, or 71 percent, since January 2001.
- Most people are covered through the workplace, so when they lose their jobs, they lose their health benefits.
- On average, for each jobless worker who has lost insurance, at least one child or spouse covered under the same policy has also lost protection, public health experts said.
- M. Harvey Brenner, a professor of public health at the University of North Texas and Johns Hopkins University, said that three decades of research had shown a correlation between the condition of the economy and human health, including life expectancy.“ In recessions, with declines in national income and increases in unemployment,” Mr. Brenner said, “you often see increases in mortality from heart disease, cancer, psychiatric illnesses and other conditions.”
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A Washington State Legislative Advocacy Network Promotes Our Project
Olympia, WA
September 8, 2008
Washington Unitarian Universalist Voices for Justice, a State legislative advocacy network based in Olympia, Washington, describes with enthusiasm the history, goals and methodology of our Study Circle project in a recently published story on its web site.
Entitled The Moral Imperative of Health Care Reform, this information-packed article states that underscoring our project "is the understanding that equal access to health care is a justice issue, a moral necessity. Just as awareness of moral need stirred other great movements – the end of slavery, protection of child and adult workers, environmentalism – awareness of the moral need for health care reform can bring people together to begin the work for another social transformation."
To read their article about our project visit their web site at http://www.uuvoiceswa.org/
Cedars Adult Program Committee Launches Fall Study Circle Series
Bainbridge Island, WA
September 1, 2008
The health care system in our country is broken. This indisputable fact is readily acknowledged by just about everyone. Can we, in all good conscience, sit back and let millions of Americans go without health care? Are we willing to continue to accept the most inefficient, inequitable and expensive health care system in the developed world? If not, what are we, as caring and responsible citizens, going to do about it?
The members of the Cedars Adult Programs Committee asked just those questions in the summer of 2007 and decided to take on the issue of health care reform. We rolled up our sleeves and created a 143-page Study Circle Guide to help us and others explore this complex territory.
Early this year a group of us embarked on six two-hour study circle sessions to test this newly developed Guide. Based on our experience, we made revisions and have since published the Guide on CD and are making it available on the internet. We are hoping that other churches and community groups will use the Guide to inform themselves and to mobilize to help bring about a health care system that works for everyone.
You can view the results of this project on line by visiting Everyone’s Health Counts at http://everyoneshealthcounts.blogspot.com/.
Meanwhile, Cedars Adult Program Committee is sponsoring a series of study circles for this fall. We urge our members to join one of the three circles that will be meeting one evening a week over a six-week period. You can choose between Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday evenings. Each two-hour circle will convene at 7:00 PM at the Sterling Building.
For information or to sign up please contact:
Barbara Clarke, 206-780-0686 (evenings)
Karen Scarvie, 206-780-0720 (days)
HEALTH CARE REFORM IS EVERYONE'S BUSINESS
because
EVERYONE'S HEALTH COUNTS!
Making Headway on Health Care
from Everyday Democracy, Ideas and Tools for Community Change
January 29, 2008
The economy is on everyone's minds these days. The faltering housing market has the spotlight, but the soaring cost of health care is another burden that American families and small businesses can barely shoulder. Members of the Cedars Unitarian Universalist Church on Bainbridge Island (near Seattle) met earlier this month to launch a round of study circles on “The Moral Imperative of Health Care."
Organizer Barbara Clarke, who formerly worked in managed care, told the Bainbridge Island Review that the debate has started moving beyond whether health care is a right or a privilege. “When you see that women with breast cancer and no insurance have a 40 percent less chance of surviving, that’s moral," she said. "When you see a mother who can’t take her children to the doctor, that’s moral.”
Meanwhile, syndicated columnist David Sirota writes about how the state legislatures in Washington and Wisconsin are considering legislation to extend health care to every citizen in those states. "The plan is simple," he says. "Employers and employees pay a modest payroll tax in exchange for full medical benefits, with no premiums. Patients never lose coverage and pick the doctors they prefer. And for the spendthrifts, here's the best part: According to an analysis of the Wisconsin proposal by the nonpartisan Lewin Group, the plan would save middle-class families an annual average of $750 on their existing health care bills. In all, the state would save almost $14 billion over the next decade."
Early this year a group of us embarked on six two-hour study circle sessions to test this newly developed Guide. Based on our experience, we made revisions and have since published the Guide on CD and are making it available on the internet. We are hoping that other churches and community groups will use the Guide to inform themselves and to mobilize to help bring about a health care system that works for everyone.
You can view the results of this project on line by visiting Everyone’s Health Counts at http://everyoneshealthcounts.blogspot.com/.
Meanwhile, Cedars Adult Program Committee is sponsoring a series of study circles for this fall. We urge our members to join one of the three circles that will be meeting one evening a week over a six-week period. You can choose between Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday evenings. Each two-hour circle will convene at 7:00 PM at the Sterling Building.
For information or to sign up please contact:
Barbara Clarke, 206-780-0686 (evenings)
Karen Scarvie, 206-780-0720 (days)
HEALTH CARE REFORM IS EVERYONE'S BUSINESS
because
EVERYONE'S HEALTH COUNTS!
Making Headway on Health Care
from Everyday Democracy, Ideas and Tools for Community Change
January 29, 2008
The economy is on everyone's minds these days. The faltering housing market has the spotlight, but the soaring cost of health care is another burden that American families and small businesses can barely shoulder. Members of the Cedars Unitarian Universalist Church on Bainbridge Island (near Seattle) met earlier this month to launch a round of study circles on “The Moral Imperative of Health Care."
Organizer Barbara Clarke, who formerly worked in managed care, told the Bainbridge Island Review that the debate has started moving beyond whether health care is a right or a privilege. “When you see that women with breast cancer and no insurance have a 40 percent less chance of surviving, that’s moral," she said. "When you see a mother who can’t take her children to the doctor, that’s moral.”
Meanwhile, syndicated columnist David Sirota writes about how the state legislatures in Washington and Wisconsin are considering legislation to extend health care to every citizen in those states. "The plan is simple," he says. "Employers and employees pay a modest payroll tax in exchange for full medical benefits, with no premiums. Patients never lose coverage and pick the doctors they prefer. And for the spendthrifts, here's the best part: According to an analysis of the Wisconsin proposal by the nonpartisan Lewin Group, the plan would save middle-class families an annual average of $750 on their existing health care bills. In all, the state would save almost $14 billion over the next decade."
Series takes on healthcare
Bainbridge Review
by Lindsay Latimore
Jan 19 2008
The modern-day healthcare system leaves too many people at a loss – confused by their options and uncertain how to act. That was the reasoning driving a group of reform-minded members of Cedars Unitarian Universalist Church to develop a new learning and discussion series, “The Moral Imperative of Health Care.”
“This is targeted at informing people...and also engaging them as citizens to go forward,” organizer Barbara Clarke said. Clarke, who worked in managed care for many years, recalled numerous debates with colleagues over the question of whether healthcare was a “right
or a privilege.”
“And I think it’s really moved beyond that,” she said. “When you see that women with breast cancer and no insurance have a 40 percent less chance of surviving, that’s moral. When you see a mother who can’t take her children to the doctor, that’s moral.”
The six-session workshop, which begins tomorrow and runs weekly through Feb. 17, will combine the reading of background articles with facilitated discussions, scenario-based role-playing and the sharing of stories, all with an aim to illuminate the state of healthcare on personal, political and institutional fronts.
A significant component, Clarke said, will be to train future facilitators to organize subsequent workshops Ultimately, the group hopes to to organize a large-scale public forum to be held in August at which community members and public officials work together to create healthcare reform.
“When informed citizens come together, they can create policy and affect change,” she said. Though the upcoming workshop is full, organizers are taking reservations for the next “Moral Imperative of Health Care” series.
Contact Karen Scarvie at 780-0720 or Clarke at 780-0686.
HEALTH CARE REFORM IS EVERYONE'S BUSINESS
because
EVERYONE'S HEALTH COUNTS!
Bainbridge Review
by Lindsay Latimore
Jan 19 2008
The modern-day healthcare system leaves too many people at a loss – confused by their options and uncertain how to act. That was the reasoning driving a group of reform-minded members of Cedars Unitarian Universalist Church to develop a new learning and discussion series, “The Moral Imperative of Health Care.”
“This is targeted at informing people...and also engaging them as citizens to go forward,” organizer Barbara Clarke said. Clarke, who worked in managed care for many years, recalled numerous debates with colleagues over the question of whether healthcare was a “right
or a privilege.”
“And I think it’s really moved beyond that,” she said. “When you see that women with breast cancer and no insurance have a 40 percent less chance of surviving, that’s moral. When you see a mother who can’t take her children to the doctor, that’s moral.”
The six-session workshop, which begins tomorrow and runs weekly through Feb. 17, will combine the reading of background articles with facilitated discussions, scenario-based role-playing and the sharing of stories, all with an aim to illuminate the state of healthcare on personal, political and institutional fronts.
A significant component, Clarke said, will be to train future facilitators to organize subsequent workshops Ultimately, the group hopes to to organize a large-scale public forum to be held in August at which community members and public officials work together to create healthcare reform.
“When informed citizens come together, they can create policy and affect change,” she said. Though the upcoming workshop is full, organizers are taking reservations for the next “Moral Imperative of Health Care” series.
Contact Karen Scarvie at 780-0720 or Clarke at 780-0686.
HEALTH CARE REFORM IS EVERYONE'S BUSINESS
because
EVERYONE'S HEALTH COUNTS!
