Medicaid Issues Would Disappear with Universal Healthcare

May 26,2023

May 26, 2023

Happy Friday Healthcare Advocates

Monday is Memorial Day. We honor and mourn and those who gave their lives so we could be free. Participate in our democracy and honor their legacy. If we fail to protect it, it will be lost and we are closer to losing it now than ever. Make sure you are informed, make sure you vote in every election, make sure you let elected officials know what is important to you. There are links in the resources to participate in democracy. We will not be publishing on Memorial Day.

Please enter requests for research using the comment button at the bottom of this newsletter. Remember our advocacy educates our representatives and lets them know what we want them to do for us.

Items in work are prison healthcare (a hot mess) and rural healthcare (another hot mess). If you have ideas that could improve those situations please use the comment button below to share.

Unwinding Medicaid

Several months ago we had an article about unwinding Medicaid when the pandemic ended. If I wasn’t clear yesterday the problem was that over 82% of those removed from Medicaid min Florida were for procedural reasons. Link to the news story. It was over 200,000 people dropped in Florida. Arkansas is another disaster. Data from the Arkansas Department of Human Services shows that in April, 72,802 residents were dropped from the state’s Medicaid program, including more than 28,000 children and infants. Over 44,000 recipients were disenrolled because they “failed to return a renewal form”; only 5,414 Arkansans were dropped because their household income exceeded the limit. NerdWallet has good advice to ensure continued health insurance coverage. Go to that link if you or a friend/loved one have Medicaid and check. Of course, this would not be an issue with Universal Healthcare since it covers everyone cradle to grave.

Reproductive Rights

Thank you to Rogan’s list for their review of reproductive rights today. Abortion bans and restrictions have been moving fast and furious by legislators who think they know more than doctors. North Carolina instituted a 12 week ban that includes multiple burdensome doctor visits and South Carolina just put a 6 week ban in place. Nebraska instituted a 12 week ban and bundled it with a gender affirming care ban for minor trans kids ( I still don’t hear anything about gymnasts using similar medications). And if that weren’t enough the Republican Taliban in Louisiana rejected rape and incest bans for abortion.

Action 1 (Give if you Can)

You can help women in Nebraska, the Carolinas, or Louisiana. Each of those state links in the previous sentence takes you to an organization that needs funds to help provide abortions.

Action 2

Contact your Representative in Congress and Senators and tell them you want them to Enact the Women’s Health Protection Act and The Protecting Access to Medication Abortion Act (S. 237). You can also text SIGN PJOBSV to 50409 to send the message below to them using your cell phone

Here is a sample text:

“ I am your constituent in [zipcode]. How long are you going to let women be treated like property and not full citizens capable of making their own healthcare decisions? I want you to cosponsor and vocally support the Women’s Health Protection Act to secure the right to an abortion and the Protecting Access to Medication Abortion Act (S.237) to make sure that the medicines needed for safe and effective abortion are available through tele-health and mail order pharmacies. You are either a woman or related to one that loved you and you owe this to us. Women are people and deserve to be treated like people, not property. DO IT”.