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The Afro-American, November 2, 2013 - November 8, 2, 2013
Obamacare Continued from A1
still does not work for most.” Last week, Upton and other members of his committee grilled four of the lead contractors responsible for Healthcare.gov about the website. And, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius underwent an even more scathing interrogation on Oct. 30 when she testified only hours after the website crashed again. In his weekly address on Oct. 26, President Obama conceded that the website’s malfunctions were vexing, even as he mocked Republicans for their sudden concern with the site’s userfriendliness after years of trying to dismantle the ACA. “The site isn’t working the way it’s supposed to yet,” he said. “That’s frustrating for all of us who have worked so hard to make sure everyone who needs it gets health care. And it’s especially frustrating for the Americans who’ve been trying to get covered.” Still, he added, “The site has been visited more than 20 million times so far. [And] nearly 700,000 people have applied for coverage already. That proves just how much demand there is for these new quality, affordable health care choices. And that’s why, in the coming weeks, we are going to get it working as smoothly as it’s supposed to.” According to health care officials, the marketplace’s breakdown over the weekend stemmed from a networking failure at Verizon Terremark,
the company that operates the data center that hosts the HealthCare.gov website and the Data Services Hub. That problem was resolved by Oct. 28. And, similarly, officials are continuing to push through a “punch list” of fixes to the website, with the expectation that it will be fully functional by the end of November. “With our new management structure in place, our tech team is diagnosing problems and working with developers and vendors to analyze, troubleshoot, prioritize and resolve issues in real time,” said Julie Bataille, spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which is administering the site, during a conference call with reporters on Oct. 28. “This is a continuous process, so I anticipate that we will see incremental improvements week by week leading to November, when the vast majority of users will be able to more smoothly move through the enrollment system.” For example, Bataille said, the team has implemented new tools to monitor the site, enabling them to better gauge what is happening with the marketplace’s application and enrollment system. Recent fixes included configuring components to increase site responsiveness, so, for example, when users want to view or filter health plans during the online
Many Poor Blacks in the South Will Remain Uninsured By Freddie Allen NNPA Washington Correspondent
Even if healthcare.gov, the web portal for federal health insurance exchange, worked perfectly, more than 5 million poor, uninsured adults, many of them Black, will continue to go without coverage because they live in states that didn’t expand Medicaid, according to a recent brief by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Through the Affordable Care Act, the federal government agreed to pay 100 percent of the cost of the Medicaid expansion through 2016 and at least 90 percent through 2020. The Obama administration planned for nationwide expansion of Medicaid, the health insurance program that covers the poor and disabled, setting the Medicaid income eligibility at 138 percent of the federal poverty level, or roughly $27,000 annually for a family of three. In June 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that states could decide whether they want to expand Medicaid. According to the Kaiser Commission, more than half of the states, including many in the South, decided not to expand Medicaid. Those decisions created a coverage gap affecting 27 percent of uninsured adults. “A fifth of people in the coverage gap reside in Texas, which has both a large uninsured population and very limited Medicaid eligibility. Fifteen percent live in Florida, eight percent in Georgia, six percent live in North
“Even if healthcare.gov…worked perfectly, more than 5 million poor, uninsured adults, many of them Black, will continue to go without coverage.”
shopping process, the pages respond in seconds, not minutes. Technicians have also resolved issues with the eligibility notices that display at the completion of the application process—some users were seeing a blank
page. The Obama administration has touted the continuing improvements and has also promoted the other means of enrollment. Interested persons can enroll by calling 1-800-318-2596 or they can
Demonstrators Continued from A1
jail, locking arms and praying to deter criminal behavior that results in jail terms and criminal prosecution and to send a message of encouragement to jail inmates. “When the prisoners look outside the window, they will see that there is a group that
is outside praying for them as well as to block another generation from coming in,” Bryant said. “We don’t want to see our sons and our nephews going to this place. We want this to be the last generation.” The demonstration is part of an initiative begun
Photos by Blair Adams
Community demonstrators hold hands
Carolina, and another six percent live in Ohio,” the Kaiser Commission brief said. More than half of all Blacks live in eight states: Texas, Florida, Georgia, New York, California, North Carolina, Illinois, and Maryland. According to the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, “The largest uninsured non-elderly Black populations reside in Florida (718,800), Texas (613,100), and Georgia (594,600). In addition, Blacks comprise a large share of the uninsured population in the District of Columbia (52%), Mississippi (48%), and Louisiana (42%).” Florida, Texas, Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana chose not to expand Medicaid leaving billions of dollars unspent, forcing many of their citizens to either go without health insurance or to sign up for health insurance on the federal-facilitated marketplace. Because 40 percent of all Blacks are under age 26, compared to 30 percent of Whites, the very people needed to make the health care formula work may be less inclined to participate. “With many states opting not to implement the Medicaid expansion, millions of adults will remain outside the reach of the ACA and continue to have limited, if any, option for health coverage,” the Kaiser Commission brief said. “Most do not have access to employer-based coverage through a job, few can afford coverage on their own, and most are currently ineligible for public coverage in their state.”
in August by Bryant. He has focused on Black men, especially those who are incarcerated. According to the minister, the criminal justice system and ineffective education policies keep “our people in bondage.” As people prayed, Bryant wandered through the crowd, stopping frequently to pray with the demonstrators. He said his plan is to address the high incarceration rate in the city and to let
the prisoners know that the church and the Black community haven’t forgotten them. “The American justice system needs to focus more on rehabilitation instead of incarceration,” he said. “This says a whole lot about human connection, to know that they are not in isolation, but there is a community waiting for them and cheering for them,” he said. Community activist
2013 WHITNEY YOUNG, JR. SERVICE AWARD RECEPTION
Wednesday, November 13, 2013 6:00 p.m. Radisson at the Cross Keys 100 Village Square Baltimore, MD 21210
Harry Johnson, Esq
Arnold Williams, CPA
Partner Partner Whiteford Taylor Preston Abrams, Foster, Nole & Williams, P.A.
visit LocalHelp.HealthCare. gov to find out how to enroll by mail or in person. “Some people have poked fun at me this week for sounding like an insurance salesman. And that’s OK. I’d still be out there championing
this law even if the website were perfect,” Obama said. “I’ll never stop fighting to help more hardworking Americans know the economic security of health care. That’s something we should all want.”
and Maryland House of Delegate candidate Marvin “Doc” Cheatham told the AFRO: “I think this is tremendous, it will give folks a clear understanding as to what actually goes on here. Many of us have never been inside here and don’t know how many of our people are actually in here and it begins to connect us.” “I’m encouraged, I think this is a great idea, we just have to make certain we educate our young people not to do things to bring them in here,” Cheatham said. Bryant said he wants jail inmates to realize that “God has another plan for their lives.” As community members locked arms, people held signs— in hopes that those behind the bars would see Bryant said, “After they served their debt to society, they ought to be able to come back and be fathers to their children, be able to provide for their families and still be outstanding citizens because they’ve paid their debt to society.”
Chris Brown Continued from A1 away. Both Brown and Hollosy are due back in court Nov. 24. The pair had initially faced felony assault charges. They are charged in connection with an alleged assault outside of the W hotel, located in the 500 block of 15th St. N.W., that was reported to D.C. police about 4:30 a.m. on Oct. 27. According to court documents, two women asked Brown to take a picture with them outside of the hotel. One of the women told authorities that a man who was standing nearby jumped in the picture as it was being taken and took a picture with his phone. The woman said that she heard the singer say “I’m not with that gay s--- “and “I feel like boxing.” She said Brown and Hollosy then proceeded to punch the man. Brown, on the other hand, told authorities, “I was on the bus and I guess someone tried to get on and my bodyguard handled that.” The alleged victim was later identified as Isaac Adams Parker, 20, of Beltsville, Md. Brown had just hosted a party at the Park at Fourteenth nightclub in Northwest Washington to celebrate Howard’s homecoming. R&B singer Trey Songz,
who was also in town for the homecoming festivities, went to court to support Brown. He sat by his mother and near Brown’s mother. Brown’s latest trouble is the latest in a series of run-ins with the law. He was already on probation for his infamous 2009 assault against Rihanna. Long before the hearing began, a host of people gathered outside the courthouse with signs with messages such as, “LEAVE CHRIS ALONE!” and “LET CHRIS LIVE!” DJ Heat, a radio personality on WPGC 95.5 FM, said she stood outside the courthouse for hours. She believes the victim’s claims are suspicious. “The story sounds a little bit fishy to me,” she said. “The guy got punched for photo bombing? It sounds kind of weird. [Chris’] story sounds a little more believable.” Al Kedo, of N.E. Washington, said he believes the media and Brown’s detractors have been picking on him since the Rihanna incident. “He went through the right procedures to get [his crime] dealt with,” he said. “People are still slandering his name and I don’t think it’s fair. That’s why I’m out here.”