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Including Inglewood Airport Area • Baldwin Hills • Crenshaw/LA • Ladera Heights VOL. 22, No. 41
October 10, 2013
Obamacare Comes to Inglewood
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resident Barack Obama’s health care overhaul got its public unveiling Oct. 1, when those marketplaces, also called exchanges, opened for business, allowing consumers to comparison shop between insurance plans online. The Affordable Care Act will dramatically change the way many Americans will get health insurance and marks the most extensive change to the nation’s health care system since Medicare and Medicaid became law in 1965. Polls have shown many Americans remain mystified by the law, and Obama (L-R) Chief Executive Howard Kahn with staff member and Mayor James Butts. acknowledged the change had the nation on edge: “The To Howard Kahn, chief ex- the law means to the millions including Medi-Cal, the devil you know is always bet- ecutive of L.A. Care Health of people it will affect. state arm of Medicaid. ter than the devil you don’t Plan, the biggest challenge L.A. Care Health Plan held “People are going to be know,” he said. will be communicating what a health information fair Oct. confused,” he said. 5 at its Inglewood office, California will see about 3111 W. Cemtury Blvd., to $300 million in federal bring the public up to speed money for outreach and on new coverage options. advertising, some of which “By definition, it will be a is going to a wide array of bit messy on the way,” said groups that are trying to Kahn, whose group serves promote the law. Yet unmore than 1 million Los certainty remains. A Kaiser Angeles County residents Family Foundation survey through free or low-cost of 2,000 uninsured Califor(Continued on page 5) health insurance programs,
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Leaders of the “DO” School By Thomas Bunn
t’s that time again! October is here and the Leaders of The Do School have yet another set of challenges for those of us looking to #DoSomething! Challenge #1 was born out of our need for financial literacy. Black and brown communities make up the largest pool of spending power among any other ethnic groups in the nation, yet (Continued on page 2)
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Civil Rights Icon Arrested in Immigration Protest
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emocratic leaders and members of the Congressional Black Caucus were taken away in handcuffs on Tuesday for blocking the street on the National Mall in Washington DC. John Lewis (D-GA), Charles Rangel (D-NY), and Al Green (D-TX), joined colleagues Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), Raul Grijalva (DAZ), Joe Crowley (D-NY), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), and Keith Ellison (D-MN) in an act of civil disobedience as onlookers cheered “Si se puede!”—Spanish for “Yes, we can!”
John Lewis Lewis went to the Mall to demand that Congress stop stalling the passage of immigration reform, even as his Democratic Party finds itself in a political quagmire within the Republican-led House. The standoff has forced a week-old government shutdown and default crisis. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who was surrounded by lawmakers on stage, told the crowd that immigrants “make America more American.” Lewis, who marched with the (Continued on page 5)