Be Highlighted in the CAHC Newsletter
If you are a CAHC Member and would like to
see your work and activities highlighted in our
newsletter as they apply to health care and coverage
issues, please email
us. |
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Interesting Fact
About 7 million people who lost their jobs
since September 2008 will be able to continue getting
health insurance benefits with the help of the new 65%
federal COBRA subsidy.
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PASS IT
ALONG!
If you liked the information included in
this newsletter, please forward it to others you
think may be
interested.
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HEALTH CARE POLICY
IN
MAINE
Mainers Supporting
"Health Care Bill of Rights," Dirigo and Single
Payer Health Care
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JOIN US! HELP LOWER HEALTH CARE COSTS AND
RAISE QUALITY
A bill calling for
higher quality, more cost effective health care is
coming to public hearing May 5th at 1:00
pm in the Insurance and Financial
Services Committee room 427 of the State
House. LD1444, "An Act to Protect Consumers
and Small Business Owners from Rising Health Care
Costs," sponsored by Senator Phil Bartlett can be
viewed here: http://janus.state.me.us/legis/LawMakerWeb/summary.asp?ID=280032620
If you'd like to
testify in support of this bill at the hearing, or
can't make the hearing but want to write testimony
for us to bring in for you, please email Cherilee
at cbudrick@mainecahc.org or Doug at
dclopp@mainecahc.org.
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 MIA IS
BACK
For those of you who don't know
yet-Our Director of Policy and Operations is back
from maternity leave! Mia Poliquin Pross will be
picking up where she left off, supervising staff
and policy decisions in the office as well as
managing our Robert Wood Johnson-Maine Voices for
Coverage Grant (among her many other
duties).
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CAHC'S HELPLINE IS GIVING REAL HELP TO
MAINE PEOPLE
True Story:
A man called our HelpLine.
He had recently been laid off from a paper mill
and lost his health insurance with that job. Our
HelpLine staff inquired about whether he had
received the notice from his former employer
telling him about his right to elect COBRA
insurance with the 65% Federal subsidy. He said he
had not gotten such a letter. When our staff
explained that his former employer was required by
the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to send
this notice by April 17, he thought back and
remembered getting a letter-but says he just
didn't understand what it all meant. He went
and got the letter and sure enough, it was his
COBRA subsidy offer. Thanks to his call to our
HelpLine, he was able to sign up for COBRA
insurance and get the new 65%
federal subsidy to help him pay for insurance for
nine
months. Incidentally, we asked how he got our
number and he said he had saved it from a couple
years ago when he was laid off and we had helped
him then too with his health insurance
issues.
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CAHC IN THE NEWS Lost job? What a worker needs to
know
By: Ann Kim
As seen in
the Portland Press Herald, April 5, 2009
"You can discuss your options by calling
Consumers for Affordable Health Care's helpline at
1-800-965-7476. Many people wrongly assume that
they do not qualify for MaineCare because of how
much money they used to make, said Lisa Webber, an
outreach and education coordinator for the
advocacy group. Hospital free care - also known as
charity care - and clinics that offer services for
free or on a sliding scale can also help people
without insurance."
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WANT TO JOIN OUR AMAZING
COALITION?
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If you liked the
information included in this newsletter, please
forward it along to others you think may be
interested. If you are interested in
learning more about what CAHC has been working on,
or how we may be able to help you in your health
care or health coverage matters,
visit our Web
site.
Sincerely,
Communications
Coordinator | | |
