Thursday, April 13, 2006

Save Charity Hospital! Health Care Catastrophe in New Orleans

From New Orleans IndyMedia:

On March 25, 2006, community members, doctors, residents, medical students, nurses, hospital employees, politicians, and political activists rallied outside of New Orleans’ Charity Hospital to protest the closure of this esteemed public institution. Considered the oldest continuously running public hospital in the country, Charity has cared for thousands of members of the New Orleans community for two centuries. These New Orleans residents are now largely without access to healthcare and have been forced to rely entirely on understaffed emergency rooms for basic health needs, such as monthly prescriptions and routine medical complaints. This shift has caused a healthcare catastrophe in the New Orleans metropolitan area.

Democracy Now Being Denied to Displaced New Orleanians

This Democracy Now! broadcast from April 10 provides good overview of what Displaced New Orleanians are thinking about the upcoming New Orleans elections....

What's Wrong With this Voting Picture?

Compare the NY Times map from Oct. 2, 2005, which indicates the total number of evacuees in states outside Louisiana (more than 700,000) with the recent New Orleans Times-Picayune map of the number of people who had requested absentee ballots by last Friday (less than 11,000), and you may ask, "What is wrong with this picture?" The states of Texas and Alabama received over 100,000 evacuees, yet only 3557 requests from Texas and a mere 315 from Alabama had been received by last Friday.

In the run-up to city elections that will determine the future of New Orleans, there are signs that New Orleans evacuees may be subject to a virtual disfranchisement of gigantic proportions. With less than two weeks remaining before the election on April 22, records available at NOLA.com indicate that less than 15,000 of the more than 500,000 evacuees scattered across the country have requested absentee ballots.

As ColorOfChange.org has written, "Everyone watching knows what will happen if elections go forward without a change" in this situation: "the Black vote will be suppressed and the ability for Black New Orleanians to claim their future [will be] compromised. During Iraq's election, the U.S. government provided polling places in U.S. cities with large numbers of Iraqi-Americans. Why won't it do the same for thousands of mostly Black displaced New Orleanians?"

If you think there's something wrong with this picture, there is something you can do: Sign this petition to Governor Blanco, and demand satellite voting for the citizens of the New Orleans diaspora:

Setting up satellite voting centers outside the State of Louisiana in areas with large numbers of displaced residents is a reasonable, effective way to improve their access to voting rights. Please make your voice heard, and help to ensure that all New Orleanians have equal access to voting and being involved in determining the future of their city.

In addition to signing the petition above, please Call Gov. Blanco's office at (866)-366-1121, (225)-342-0991, or (225)-342-7015. Tell the person who answers that you're calling on Governor Blanco to provide satellite voting centers for displaced New Orleanians outside the State of Louisiana, even if it means postponing the April 22nd election.

Monday, April 10, 2006

9th Ward ACORN Community Forum Draws 250 Residents

On March 26th, 250 residents of the 9th Ward in New Orleans participated in a community planning meeting co-sponsored by the Cornell University Department of City and Regional Planning, the Louisiana State University School of Architecture, and State Representative Charmaine Marchand.

Residents came to register their intent to return and to voice their concerns about rebuilding. During the day, residents formed committees to work on rebuilding plans, and they met directly with planners and other residents about community needs.

Also present were City Council member Cynthia Lewis and City Council President Oliver Thomas, who both committed to authoring a city ordinance making it law for anyone with a city contract to pay a living wage.

In addition to discussing the future, 9th Ward residents documented their stories and contributed to the design of a memory map to record pre-Katrina 9th Ward neighborhood characteristics and experiences. An Information Center provided updates and assisted residents in local support services, and ACORN tax preparers were on hand to prepare taxes for free while residents participated in the meetings and workshops.

Saturday, April 08, 2006

Who is Killing New Orleans?

Mike Davis has written an excellent essay with this title, published in the April 10 edition of The Nation. This essay examines the politics of power interfering with recovery efforts in New Orleans. Check it out!

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Hurricane Katrina Accountability and Contracting Reform Act (H.R. 3838)

The Hurricane Katrina Accountability and Contracting Reform Act (H.R. 3838)
(http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:h.r.03838)

A bill to create an anti-fraud commission to prevent wasteful spending, to ban abusive contracting practices, and to increase contracting transparency. This commission would help ensure that the government money going to relief efforts actually goes to relief efforts. The GAO and The Washington Post have already reported severe money mismanagement, and it seems it would be in the best interests of the Gulf Coast if this stopped.

Who to call: Rep. Candice S. Miller (10th District, MI)
Phone: (202) 225-6465
Website: http://candicemiller.house.gov/

What to say: 1. This bill is critical to the speedy recovery of the Gulf Coast.
2. No action has been taken on this bill since September, 2005. 3. As a concerned citizen of Michigan, I would like to see the House take action to approve this bill immediately.

Grassley-Baucus Emergency Health Care Relief Package (S.1716)

--Key Legislation and Contact Information, Courtesy of Students at the UNC School of Public Health

The Grassley-Baucus Emergency Health Care Relief Package (S.1716)
(http://www.congress.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:SN01716:)

This legislation would provide Katrina survivors with health coverage wherever they are now located. A simplified eligibility and enrollment process would be created to enroll people from federal disaster counties in Mississippi and Alabama and federal disaster parishes in Louisiana into Medicaid. It would also extend to people who live elsewhere in the affected states who have lost their jobs since Hurricane Katrina. This coverage would encompass everyone with income below the poverty level, pregnant women and children with income up to twice the poverty level. Once enrolled, Katrina survivors who are located in other states would receive Medicaid as though they were Medicaid enrollees in that state. This means no new systems or rules for health care providers or states. The federal government would pay all of the cost of providing Medicaid to covered Katrina survivors in any state in which they are enrolled. This would continue for five months with a potential five month extension. The federal government would pay the full cost of Medicaid coverage for all residents of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama through December 2006. In addition, the proposal would ensure that no state would experience a decrease in its federal matching rate in 2006. A new, federally administered Disaster Relief Fund would offset uncompensated care costs that health care providers have incurred caring for Katrina survivors.

Who to call: Sen. Carl Levin (MI)
Phone: (202) 224-6221
Website: http://levin.senate.gov/

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (MI)
Phone: (202) 224-4822
Website: http://stabenow.senate.gov/

What to say: 1. This bill is critical to the health and well-being of Katrina survivors.
2. No action has been taken on this bill since September, 2005.
3. As a concerned citizen of Michigan, I would like to see the Senate take action to approve this bill immediately.