By Hazel Trice Edney

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The U. S. Supreme Court this week is expected to decide whether to repeal, uphold or alter President Barack Obama’s health care reform law, placing Black leaders of Congress on edge and preparing for a re-election battle whichever way the ruling comes down.

“For 99 years, presidents have been trying to do this. Finally, our president has made it possible for each and every American,” said Congresswoman Donna M. Christian-Christensen (D – V.I.), a medical doctor who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus’ Health Braintrust. “Racial and ethnic minorities who have been left outside the door of the health care system are now able to get in. And now there is this extra help for individuals who have not been inside the health care system. We could lose that…But, if we don’t have President Obama and Democrats running this country, we’ll never have the opportunity to fix anything that the Supreme Court might undo,” she said in an interview.

Opponents of the law include 26 states, the National Federation of Independent Business, Liberty University and the Thomas More Law Center. The Court is expected to rule Thursday, June 28.

U. S. Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), assistant Democratic leader of the House of Representatives and the highest elected Black representative said the health care issue is crucial to Black America – just as important as the economy – if not more.

“All of us need to be talking about health care more than anything else,” Clyburn said in an interview. “The fact of the matter is that health care is not about Obamacare. Health care is about those children born with juvenile diabetes being able to have insurance and they cannot have it otherwise; it’s about women with breast cancer, men with prostate cancer not being denied treatment [due to pre-existing conditions]. It’s about children being able to stay on their parents’ insurance policies up until their 27^th birthday. That is what this is about; not Obamacare or any other sound bite.”

The Affordable Care Act, signed into law by the President on March 23, 2010, has been highly politicized, called “Obamacare” by many since President Obama pushed for it as his first major piece of legislation. Proponents, instead, have called the law “Obama Cares”, arguing that without the legislative African-Americans and the poor would be affected greater than other Americans.

Dr. Leonard Weather, former president of the National Medical Association, listed the following specific benefits of the law in the Black community in a column for the Trice Edney News Wire:

Lower Costs for African-American Families

• Lifetime limits on insurance coverage is eliminated and bans insurance companies from dropping people from coverage when they get sick.
• The new health insurance exchanges and all new plans will have a cap on out-of-pocket expenses such as co-pays and deductibles.
• People who cannot afford quality health insurance will receive tax credits starting in 2014.
• Medicare beneficiaries will receive a 50 percent discount on brand name drugs in the donut hole and complete closure in 2020.

Greater Choices

• Insurance company discrimination is eliminated such as denying children coverage based on preexisting conditions.
• Going forward, the Act will prohibit insurance companies from denying coverage to all individuals.
• It provides more affordable choices and competition by creating state based health insurance exchanges.

Strong Focus on Minority Health

• The National Institute of Minority Health is created reflecting an enhanced focus on minority health.

Quality, Affordable Health Care for African-Americans

• Preventive care for better health requires new plans to cover prevention and wellness benefits at no charge, exempting these from deductibles.
• Co-payments for preventive services are eliminated.
• It ensures that all Americans have access to free preventive services.
• Community health teams are provided to improve management of chronic disease that will help 50 percent of African-Americans who suffer from them.
• Primary care workforce is enhanced to ensure that all Americans have access to a primary care doctor.
• Moves toward elimination of disparities that African-Americans currently face both in health and health care by investing in data collection and research about health disparities.
• Strengthens cultural competency training to health care providers.

Despite the outcome of this week’s ruling, Christian-Christensen says CBC members are ready to push for President Obama’s re-election. She said, “We will go out after the convention to really get people charged up to get to the polls to vote.”

June 24, 2012

To Be Equal
Pass the Voter Empowerment Act

By Marc H. Morial

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - “With a pivotal presidential election just six months away, we must do all we can to ensure free and fair elections and that everyone can vote.” Voter Empowerment Act fact sheet.

Thanks to rising citizen outrage and efforts like the National Urban League’s “Occupy the Vote” campaign, the voter suppression movement is facing mounting resistance. As we reported several weeks ago, voter suppression laws in Florida designed to purge voter rolls and make it more difficult to register voters, have now been challenged by the Justice Department. There is also a new bill in the U.S. House of Representatives which takes direct aim at some of the most egregious voter suppression tactics being employed or considered in dozens of states throughout the nation.

These tactics include elimination of Election Day and same-day registration, reductions in early voting periods and absentee voting opportunities, and new restrictions on voter registration drives. These measures could prevent millions of eligible voters from exercising their constitutional right to vote and they disproportionately affect our service members, people with disabilities, minorities, young people, seniors and low income Americans.

As we approach the 2012 presidential election, we should be encouraging more, not less voting by the American people. In the 2008 presidential election about three million Americans were turned away from the polls due to voter registration problems. And an estimated 51 million Americans eligible to vote are not registered. Still there are those who are determined to keep even more people from voting. This is a travesty, it’s un-American and it dis-honors the sacrifice of generations of voting rights foot soldiers who fought and died to guarantee every citizen the right to vote.

Sponsored by Representatives John Lewis (GA), John Conyers (MI), Steny Hoyer (MD), James Clyburn (SC), and Robert Brady (PA), the Voter Empowerment Act (H.R. 5799), would fight back by ensuring equal access to the ballot box, protecting the integrity of voting systems and mandating accountability for fair elections. Among its provisions, the bill calls for

Modernizing the voter registration system, including allowing for on-line registration Requiring universities that receive federal funds to encourage students to register Setting standards for voting machines Simplifying the registration process for overseas military service men and women Authorizing same-day registration Empowering the Election Assistance Commission to ensure high standards and fair elections
Removing barriers for people with disabilities

The Voter Empowerment Act is the most serious attempt to date by Congress to protect voters from the recent on-slaught of restrictive voting measures that make it harder for millions of eligible voters to register or vote. In describing the bill in a recent op-ed in the Hill newspaper, Congressmen Conyers and Brady write, “The bill declares that a voter shall not be denied the right to vote unless the challenge is corroborated by independent evidence, and it also prohibits persons other than election officials from challenging a voter’s eligibility based on voter caging and other questionable challenges.”

John Lewis, a veteran of the civil rights movement, who was beaten during the 1965 “Bloody Sunday” voting rights march in Selma, Alabama, added, “The ability to vote should be easy, accessible and simple…We should be moving toward a more inclusive democracy, not one that locks people out.” We agree. Occupy the Vote. Pass the Voter Empowerment Act now.

By Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - In a One Big Tent America, everyone deserves a fair chance to succeed.

We shouldn’t trade in the legacy of the New Deal and Fair Deal for a Raw Deal. It follows from the Declaration of Independence that declared that “all men are created equal,” expanded over time to include all men and women. It follows from the Pledge of Allegiance that promises “liberty and justice for all.” Not for a few. Not for most. For all.

For some, it’s the 1 percent and SuperPAC Deal. For others, it’s the Middle Class Deal. In America, the land of opportunity, every American deserves the Fair Chance to Succeed Deal.

Notice the limits. Success is not promised. Some succeed; some fail. Only a fair chance is promised. It does not promise equality. People have different gifts, different capacities, different amounts of luck and pluck.

But we are a long way from reaching this goal. If you are born in Appalachia or in South Chicago, a fair chance at success isn’t the norm. Children are likely to suffer from inadequate nutrition. Preschool will not be available, schools will be underfunded, understaffed and overcrowded. After-school programs will be unaffordable.

If you are a young person entering the work force or a veteran returning from service, you face the worst job market since the Great Depression. It’s hard to have a shot at success if you can’t even find a job to get started.

A college education or advanced training is becoming more important and less affordable. The extraordinary can make it by juggling classes and jobs and taking on debt. But it is hard to argue that everyone has a fair shot at the middle class when many must take on tens of thousands of dollars in debt (an average of more than $25,000) to get the education they need.

Health care also is essential for a fair chance to succeed. But our broken system rations health care by the ability to pay. Those with the money can get the best health care in the world. Those without go without. Health-care reform was designed to ensure that almost all Americans have health insurance. But rollbacks of Medicaid and Medicare, and efforts to repeal health-care reform put that at risk.

A fair chance is essential to the American dream — to the belief that if you work hard, you can provide a home for your family, an education for your children and a secure retirement for yourself at the end of your working life. Now we are stunned to learn that the U.S. falls behind other industrialized countries in upper mobility — and that your parents’ economic status is more likely to determine where you end up.

We know how to create remarkable public schools, but we don’t create them for all children. College used to be affordable to working families. Now cutbacks in state aid have sent tuition soaring, and stagnating family incomes make college a forbidding expense.

Surely this should inform the president and Congress as they begin to negotiate over how to get our books in order. Everyone deserves a fair chance to succeed. We need to guarantee a healthy start for every child and access to a first-rate education. A job for everyone willing to work must be our first priority. Affordable health care cannot be a privilege. We can cut back on things that are less essential.

We needn’t squander trillions on wars of choice. We can crack down on offshore tax havens. We can cut the subsidies to powerful corporate interests. Those who have done well in America can be asked to do well by America.

When it comes to a grand bargain needed to reduce our deficits, let’s start by ensuring that everyone has a fair chance to succeed.

We owe one another at least that.