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March 28, 2008
ACTION ALERT: CONTACT KEY REPS AND ASK FOR A COBRA RATE INCREASE!
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Pick up the phone ASAP |
The State budget conferences started this morning and will be moving like mad all through the weekend, with major decisions being made before Monday. The health budget has enough money to keep COBRA under consideration for a rate increase. Assemblymember Dick Gottfried knows this, but he needs the support of his colleagues!
Now is your final chance to contact powerful members of the Senate and Assembly (listed below) and tell them that now is the time for a long overdue rate increase to COBRA case management.
COBRA programs bring essential case management to poor people with HIV/AIDS, and because of the lack of a rate increase, most COBRA programs are in deficit.
Please take 45 seconds and call one or all of these offices to demand a $4 miilion Medicaid rate increase for COBRA case management:
Assemblymembers
Joseph Morelli: 518-455-5373
J.Gary Pretlow: 518-455-5291
Joan Millman: 518-455-5426
Barbara Clarke: 518-455-4711
Senators
John Samson:518-455-2788
Jeff Klein: 518-455-3595
Read the rest: "ACTION ALERT: CONTACT KEY REPS AND ASK FOR A COBRA RATE INCREASE!"
A MESSAGE TO BRUNO
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Job training program graduate Williams protesting, pre-arrest |
"Just wait until November! People with AIDS will remember!" screamed more than 60 Housing Works clients and staff outside New York State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno's office on Thursday afternoon. The chant alluded to the fact that the Senate's proposed elimination of $1.4 million in job training programs for poor people with HIV/AIDS and failure to restore benefits to disabled children in homes affected by AIDS are not causes that the Republican majority should champion if it wants to hold onto its slim margin in the next election.
The angry activists marched through every floor of the Legislative Office Building chanting and distributing 2,000 fliers, asking, "Why are Senate Republicans robbing poor, disabled children whose parents have AIDS?" and "What do Senate Republicans have against jobs for people with AIDS?," eventually arriving in front of Bruno's office. Twelve Housing Works staff members and clients lay on the floor outside the office entrance until state police wearing purple gloves dragged them past a scrum of reporters and onlookers, flipped them on their stomachs, cuffed and arrested them.
"I'd rather be up here working on Medicaid reform. We shouldn't be coming here to fight to keep these tiny pots of money. There's no logical programmatic reason job training and disabled children whose parents have AIDS are being neglected," said Housing Works President and CEO Charles King. King was the first to be arrested, followed by Andrew Coamey, Jose Cruz, Thomas D'Angelo, Eddie Fukui, Nina Herzog, Michael Korn, Tamara Oyola-Santiago, Ken Robinson, Amy Velez, Dennis Weakley and Diane Williams. The group was charged with disorderly conduct and released at 5 p.m. They will appear in court on April 10...
Read the rest: "A MESSAGE TO BRUNO"
TAKING THE FUN OUT OF FUNDING
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And Communities of Color funding allocation will start...soon |
After almost ten months of City Council-imposed delays, 31 organizations finally received letters of notification Monday that they will receive $40,000-minimum grants as part of the $2.6 million HIV/AIDS Prevention and Education program, better known as the Communities of Color (COC) funding. COC dollars are intended to combat HIV/AIDS mortality and morbidity rates in minority communities in New York City, but the City Council has undermined the effective use of the money by holding up its release: AIDS groups will only have until June 30, 2008—at the very most three months—to spend all their COC money, despite the fact that the programs it supports often run year-round.
A day after the grant letters were delivered, Public Health Solutions, formerly the Medical and Health Research Association (MHRA), announced a Request for Applications (RFA), for organizations from Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island to apply for COC funding. The timing is not a coincidence: As the Update reported last month, millions in COC money appears to have been delayed until City Council could ensure that PHS would reach out to AIDS groups in those three boroughs—and appease the Council Members that represent them. The new RFA process is expected to add about 20 more organizations to the list of groups getting COC money. Depending on how many new groups actually apply by the April 8 deadline, the 31 organizations that are already set to receive funding could see their awards increase. If your organization would like to apply for a grant, for the full RFA, click here...
Read the rest: "TAKING THE FUN OUT OF FUNDING"
ACTION ALERT: LAST MINUTE CALL FOR COBRA!
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Get in the fight while you can! |
Though a tentative budget deal was released last night, the key word is "tentative," meaning you should still fight for orphaned causes—like a long-overdue COBRA rate increase—before bills hit the printer Sunday and Monday
"When hospitals are continuing to receive exorbitant trend factor increases, it is inexplicable that this crucial program is once again denied the funding it needs to make a difference in the lives of poor people with AIDS," said Housing Works President and CEO Charles King.
AIDS advocates were told by Assembly Member Dick Gottfried's office, that Gottfried, chair of the Assembly Health Committee, would put a 15 percent rate increase for COBRA case management programs in the Assembly's one-house budget. But when the budget rolled around, such an increase was nowhere to be found. COBRA case management brings essential case management to poor people with HIV/AIDS, but because of the lack of a rate increase, most COBRA programs are now in deficit...
Read the rest: "ACTION ALERT: LAST MINUTE CALL FOR COBRA!"