Protect Wellness // Oppose De-funding Amendment

Let’s make sure healthcare  includes prevention and wellness

The House and Senate are scurrying to hammer out amendments to finalize the healthcare cost containment legislation.  While the Senate bill currently includes language for a Prevention Trust Fund that could be used for access to healthy food and fitness programs, the funding for this Trust remains up in the air, with some trying to eliminate the trust after five years.

Please contact your legislator TODAY and ask them to SUPPORT amendment #30 (sponsored by Senator Chandler) which would ensure funding of the Prevention Trust for 5 years and an evaluation and renewal process at the end of 5 years.  The bill currently has a sunset provision which we wish to eliminate.

Ask your reps to OPPOSE amendment #255 (introduced by Senator Tarr) which would eliminate the finance mechanism for the Trust and replace it with 5% of revenue from the payment reform fund created in the casino bill.

See Page with the full letter and a link to a New York Times Editorial

http://jewishalliance.org/letterushousebill-child-notify/

From the Boston Herald, April 19

A healthy proposal

By Sheila Decter
Thursday, April 19, 2012

E-mail Print (3) Comments Text size  Share

The earned sick time legislation has nothing to do with “buying back” sick time (“City ‘sick’ and tired,” April 17). It is about addressing the basic needs of the 1 million Bay Staters who are unable to take a single day off to care for themselves or their children.

On National Pay Equity Day, the Herald could have recognized that the majority of low-wage workers without earned sick time are women who have to make the impossible choice of sending a sick child to school or risk taking the day off and losing their job. Working mothers know the difficulties of balancing careers and families, and earned sick days are a critical step in creating fair workplaces.

The editorial was a broad mischaracterization of the earned sick time legislation which limits the amount of sick time a worker can take each year and does not require employers to pay for unused sick time after the worker leaves employment. This bill provides exemptions for small and seasonal businesses, keeps workers in their jobs and encourages an equitable workplace for working parents.

— Sheila Decter,

Executive Director Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action, Boston

The announcement that the Susan Komen Foundation was not going to fund Planned Parenthood was of great concern to all of us who care about the efforts to find a cure for breast cancer, the efforts to support reproductive rights, and the broader issue of the health needs of women. The outpouring of support for Planned Parenthood and women’s health needs was heartwarming.

However, much remains to be seen at both the Susan Komen Foundation and in the country at large. Will women across the country tell their congressional representatives that they will not be quiet or passive in the face of congressional de-funding of women’s health services? Will women and men who care about their wives and daughters tell prospective political candidates that they will not put up with new restrictions on health services, birth control, and abortion (83 state laws in 2011 restricting access to abortion services “Guttmacher Institute” via Sarah Kliff, Washington Post’s Wonkblog. Eight states now prohibit private insurance plans from covering abortion. )   Will the advice of the Food and Drug Administration to allow the morning-after pill Plan B be directly available at drugstore and supermarkets continue to be thwarted by the Administration?

No wonder the Susan Komen Foundation thought no one would pay attention.

Here is the link to Contagion: Not Just a Movie, a powerful look at how the common sense policy of paid sick days can prevent a real-life contagion. Five worker activists share their stories of having to go to work sick because they can’t afford to stay home or aren’t allowed to take off.

Here in Massachusetts, almost 1 million workers do not have a single paid sick day.

We all have a stake in paid sick days. KNOW THE FACTS:

·        More than 44 million workers do not have paid sick days – almost 1 million of whom are Massachusetts workers.

·        Workers earning low-wages are the least likely to have paid sick days. Only 19 percent of low-wage workers have access to paid sick days.

·        Many workers with a significant interaction with the public do not have paid sick days. This includes three in four food service workers, three in five personal health care workers and three in four child care workers.

·        1 in 6 workers have been fired or threatened with being fired for taking time off work to care for a personal or family illness.

Sustainable Food and Lower Healthcare Costs