As many of you know, SJS was born in the hallways of Stony Brook University. Few might be so instrumental in raising awareness to the need for macro social workers than the faculty of the social welfare department. Here’s the open letter from the department chair, and our never ending mentor, Dr. Carolyn Peabody.
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Dear Faculty, Staff and Students of the School of Social Welfare,The Senate released their plan for replacing the Affordable Care Act this past week.
As social workers we commit ourselves to fighting for a decent quality of life for all people. I believe we cannot just let this go without our voices being heard.According to the Wall Street Journal, the Senate bill “repeals hundreds of billions of dollars in taxes on businesses and high-income households …The plan operates like the 2010 Affordable Care Act, but in reverse. Instead of raising taxes to pay for expanded insurance coverage, it reduces coverage and cuts taxes.” (WSJ Rubin, Jun. 22,2017) Furthermore, the Senate bill “proposes a fundamental restructuring and deep cuts to Medicaid, the government-run health program that provides insurance primarily to pregnant women, women, single mothers, people with disabilities, and seniors with low incomes.” (Business Insider, Jacobs, Jun. 22, 2017)
I write to you as a colleague, as the chair of the Advanced Macro Social Work Sequence and, most of all, I write as a social worker. We must stand up for those with whom we work, people who are vulnerable, whose lives would be profoundly and negatively impacted by this bill. Our profession’s ethics mandate that we work for social justice and to uphold the dignity and worth of all people. If these cuts go through many, many people we work with will no longer be able to access critical healthcare and services, denying them their – our human dignity, worth and social justice. Furthermore, most of these services, which we provide will likely be cut; thus, the corresponding impact on our profession will also be severe.
I am not writing in support of or opposition to any particular politician or party. Whatever party you support or if you support no party, I urge you to make your voice heard about your feelings about the Senate’s proposed legislation.
I am forwarding a letter I received from Planned Parenthood who is organizing buses for a demonstration in Washington DC this Tuesday 6/27. It’s short notice but the Senate leadership is determined to have a vote this week. The time to act is now. Even if you can’t go to Washington, they offer another way to have your voice heard. (See below)
Sincerely,Carolyn Peabody
We’re(PPHP) taking an emergency trip to DC on Tuesday to stop the repeal of the ACA. We have a bus leaving from Long Island and would love if you could join us and spread the word with other folks at SBU SSW. Feel free to forward the info below directly to your networks.
Please see below for details – a lot of details are still being planned but I’ll be in touch as soon as I know more.
It’ll be a long day, but if there was ever a time to stop everything and fight – this is it.
Feel free to reach out with any questions.In Solidarity,Leila
—Dear PP Activists,We’re going to DC on Tuesday, June 27 to make sure our Senators hear from us. We need everyone who can join us to get on this bus or meet us there.
As expected, the Senate released the draft version of their health care repeal bill, which defunds Planned Parenthood and denies millions of Americans healthcare. This bill is cruel. We’re in high red alert mode and we’re heading down to DC to make sure that Washington hears us.The Senate is expected to vote on it next week. As lawmakers are deliberating, we need to pink out the Capitol and show our strength. We will be traveling down to DC on Tuesday, June 27 to participate in events around the Beltway. We’ll be engaging and talking to folks across the mall, asking them to make calls directly to their Senators, and then ending the day with a BIG health care rally on the Capitol.A lot of details are still in process – please sign up if you are interested in joining us or want more information. We plan to leave Westchester and Long Island around 6 a.m. and could come back around 10 p.m. or later.The day will be exhausting but we need you in this fight more than ever before. This legislation goes beyond the 2.4 million people who receive care from Planned Parenthood. If we don’t stop this vote,23 million Americans could lose their health care.If you can’t join us on Tuesday, you can still raise hell by phonebanking into key states. Click here for more details.
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Unfortunately one of our readers was unable to post a comment and has asked me to relay the information:
“Our abysmal failure as a nation to publicly organize the health insurance system has led to the rise of corporate medical, Big Insurance, Big Pharma ,& other private profit enterprises that aggravate costs & inequalities in access to health care insurance; all are strongly resistance to universal, single payer health insurance for the USA since it would disrupt and eliminate their immense profit system.
It’s not surprising therefore, that the mainstream media and politicians like members of the House “Freedom Caucus”, most other Republican Congressmen & Senators and many Democrats as well, have completely ignored a solution standing in plain sight. It is a more efficient and affordable system for universal coverage in the public interest: H.R. 676, single-payer national health insurance. Instead, we are being led by politicians beholden to big-money interests serving the greed of today’s medical-industrial-Big Pharma-Big Insurance complex. It’s highly advantageous for the private health insurance world to manufacture and foster hatred for pointy-headed government bureaucrats and social service/health/mental health policies to drive out of people’s minds the subversive idea that the government might become an instrument of popular will, a government of, by and for the people.
The GOP’s homicidal American Healthcare Act (AHCA) repeals much of the Affordable Care Act (the ACA or Obamacare)and gravely threatens the health of millions of their constituents.
The GOP bill would take $880 billion out of Medicaid, and another $312 billion out of subsidies that help working families buy private coverage through the ACA exchanges. Instead of helping people get care, this money would be diverted to give an $800 billion tax-break windfall to people with incomes over $200,000, as well as big insurance and drug companies. The rest of us would get virtually no tax relief; immense tax cuts for the rich 1%….. immense benefit cuts for the poor & middle class 99%.
If the GOP had supported expansion of Medicaid, many could now afford new coverage through the exchange. All told, AHCA threatens to strip coverage from millions of people , would weaken protections for people with pre-existing conditions, boost premiums for people over 40, and take tens of millions of dollars from our hospitals and clinics.
The ACA is deeply flawed. It left 28 million Americans uninsured and millions more with unaffordable premiums, deductibles and copayments. But the GOP plan would make things much worse. Instead of moving backward, we should move forward from the ACA to a ‘Medicare for All’ plan like the one now filed in Congress by Rep. John Conyers (H.R. 676).”