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In early February 2008 Alabama Appleseed learned that they had been awarded a major three-year grant to work on expanding health insurance coverage for the almost 650,000 Alabamians who are uninsured. The grant was awarded by the Public Welfare Foundation in Washington, D.C. Alabama Appleseed will work collaboratively on this project with one of its closest public interest allies, Alabama Arise, which is the major state-wide poverty rights advocacy organization in Alabama. This grant commenced on February 15, 2008. A week prior to the commencement of the grant, John Pickens, Alabama Appleseed’s Executive Director, attended a Southern Strategies Convening in Atlanta which was conducted by representatives from the Public Welfare Foundation and Community Catalyst.
Alabama Appleseed’s current work on health insurance coverage issues is a direct continuation of the work it started several years ago as part of the Appleseed Network collaborative project on health insurance coverage options for small businesses and their employees, a collaborative project that included the Appleseed Centers in Nebraska, New Jersey, and South Carolina. As was done in this Appleseed collaborative project, Alabama Appleseed plans to engage Alabama’s health care lawyers on a pro bono basis to help on several aspects of its current project.
Alabama Appleseed’s current Health Insurance Coverage Project will have a two-fold focus at the outset, all within the framework of expanding health insurance coverage and finding and/or developing revenue sources to fund such expansion. Initially, Alabama Appleseed will help support a tax fairness project that Alabama Arise has promoted for several years, which would eliminate the state portion of the sales tax on groceries and raise the income tax threshold to the federal poverty level (around $20,000 for a family of four). This plan is part of an overall strategy of reforming Alabama’s antiquated, regressive and inadequate tax system – reform which is needed to provide greater revenues for, among other public services, expanded health insurance coverage. Secondly and simultaneously, Alabama Appleseed and Alabama Arise will be working on developing viable options to expand health insurance coverage. One much-needed reform is raising the qualifying income level for parent coverage (for parents of children on Medicaid) from 26% of the FPL to 133% of the FPL (the same level that people qualify for food stamp assistance).
Alabama Appleseed and it collaborative partner will develop an active coalition and network of interested groups and persons to work on and advocate for expanded health insurance coverage. Then, with its collaborative partner and coalition, Alabama Appleseed will commence a three year strategic plan to build support for health insurance coverage reform, as follows: (1) The first year will be a listening, gathering, organizing and researching phase; (2) In the second year a major state-wide conference on health insurance coverage will be held and an educational/public awareness handbook, perhaps entitled Alabama Health Coverage Handbook, will be developed and widely distributed; and (3) In the third year, during 2010, the advocacy phase will kick into full swing, with part of that effort making health insurance coverage reform part of the gubernatorial and state legislative races that will take place during the year and leading up to the general election in November 2010. Throughout the project phases, as the opportunity arises, Alabama Appleseed will advocate for passage of any constructive and helpful reforms that arise from its work and that of its collaborative partners that will expand health insurance coverage.
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