Archive

Archive for the ‘Health and Environmental Justice’ Category

Rally – Thursday – Feb. 23 – Noon – Women’s Health

February 22nd, 2012 JALSA No comments

“Hands Off Women’s Health” Rally
Thursday, February 23, from noon to 1pm
Outside Sen. Scott Brown’s office
John F. Kennedy Federal Building, Boston (next to City Hall Plaza)

Tell Scott Brown “Hands Off Women’s Health”

Important that we understand the current attack on women’s health.
In Congress, they are discussing a proposal that would allow any employer to drop any provision in insurance they don’t want to cover — simply by saying it’s against their moral code.    In Virginia, they are considering a proposal to require an invasive ultra-sound procedure if women are considering terminating a pregnancy. 

Rally on Thursday to tell Scott Brown this proposed Congressional legislation is an unacceptable attack on women’s health.

Join ACLUM, NARAL, JALSA, and other groups to tell Scott Brown we do not accept this. Birth control is not your boss’s business. Make sure Senator Scott Brown gets the message loud and clear.

Senator Brown has sponsored extreme legislation that would allow any employer to deny insurance coverage for any health care service–from contraception to cancer screening–by citing “religious beliefs or moral convictions.” Allowing CEOs to impose their religious views on their employees is not religious liberty. It’s discrimination, plain and simple.

CLSA, Friday, Feb. 24th,12:30 p.m. Women’s Health, Rev. Matthew Westfox

February 17th, 2012 JALSA No comments

Important that we understand the current attack on women’s health.

Guest Speaker:  Rev. Matthew Westfox
Director of Interfaith Outreach for the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice

JALSA Office, 18 Tremont Street, Suite 320, Boston

Thursday’s hearing reflected the position of the US Catholic Bishops and Religious Right.
Join us at CLSA for the perspective of the multiple religious groups that belong to the Religious Coalition on Reproductive Choice and support government positions that allow individual women to follow their own consciences as they make reproductive and health decisions. What do we need to do to assure that women’s health is not sacrificed during this political season.  We know that religious freedom and reproductive rights can be maintained simultaneously.

Reverand Matthew Westfox is the Director of Interfaith Outreach for the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.  An ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, he also serves as Associate Pastor for All Souls Bethlehem Church.  Before attending seminary at Pacific School of Religion, Reverend Westfox was a community organizer for New York Lawyers for the Public Interest and a legislative aide for New York State Senator Thomas K. Duane.

Feel free to bring lunch.  Just come or save your seat by emailing jalsaoffice@gmail.com.

Regarding the Susan Komen Foundation and Women’s Health and Reproductive Rights

February 8th, 2012 JALSA No comments

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.

Amicus Brief for Supreme Court in Process

December 14th, 2011 JALSA No comments
Health Care is a Communal Responsibility

We are continuing our work on an amicus brief for the U.S. Supreme Court which is considering our recent federal health care legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Faculty and students at Boston University Law School have asked JALSA consideration and cooperation on an amicus brief to be submitted that would deal with some of the libertarian issues underlining the suit. “Implicit in many of the lower courts’ opinions invalidating the individual mandate, including the Eleventh Circuit’s, is a concern that the mandate threatens individual liberty. This sense that the mandate represents a serious imposition on personal freedom has driven much of the popular and judicial debate on the mandate’s constitutionality under the Commerce Clause, but the government has not addressed the argument.”

JALSA will argue that health care is a communal responsibility and that the federal government is not taking away personal liberty when it allows citizens to select from a choice of health care options.

From MA Paid Sick Leave Coalition – Information and You Tube

September 16th, 2011 JALSA Comments off

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.

Suggested Letter about Food Justice – Prevention Trust

August 18th, 2011 JALSA No comments
Dear Friends for Social Justice:

Will you join JALSA in supporting food justice and environmental health by signing onto the Prevention Trust?

Through JALSA’s work on food and the connection between safe environments and healthy families, one thing has become clear.  Insurers, providers and the state need to invest in prevention programs that will increase availability of healthy sustainable food, improve air quality, and increase opportunities for exercise and access to green spaces.  These measures will help prevent disease before it starts, ensuring healthier communities and lower health care costs for all of us.

Below is information about a sign-on letter urging the state to invest in prevention measures as part of Health Care Cost Control.   They need clergy, business, municipal, academic and health care leaders to sign on.  Will you?

Email jalsaoffice@gmail.com or follow this link to sign onto the letter.
Look below for more information and content of the letter:

This effort is being led jointly by Massachusetts Public Health Association, Health Care for All, Health Resources in Action, and the Boston Public Health Commission.
——————————————————————————————–
Dear President Murray and Speaker DeLeo:

In the past several months, we have heard a growing chorus of leaders calling for the Commonwealth to move forward with legislation to reform our system of health care payment. As you determine the next steps the Massachusetts legislature will take to advance the health of our residents, the undersigned organizations and individuals urge that as you move forward, you will enact legislation that ultimately promotes prevention and wellness by integrating health promotion and the prevention of disease into the fundamental mechanisms of our health care payment system. We urge you to seize this opportunity to make community-based prevention a priority in the way that the Commonwealth pays for the health of our residents. Read more…

Sustainable Food and Lower Healthcare Costs

July 28th, 2011 JALSA No comments

Sustainable Food and Lower Healthcare Costs

It’s been an exciting summer at JALSA.  Several meetings with former Undersecretary of Agriculture Gus Schumacher, with Kevin Concannon, Undersecretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services; Phil Edmundson, leading Boston business advocate for healthier food,  Judith Kurland, former Regional Director U.S. Health and Human Services, as well as leaders at Tufts Health Plan and other health care providers have led to one conclusion:  Healthy, sustainable food can prevent chronic illness like diabetes and heart disease, and health care providers need to step it up!

JALSA leaders from our Environmental Justice Task Force are teaming up with JALSA members passionate about health care to call on public and private leaders to target funding towards programs that bring down the cost of sustainable healthy food, through public funding and private rebates from insurers and employers.

JALSA Joins the Prevention Trust
Thanks to the leadership of some of our younger members, JALSA is proud to announce that we are signing onto the campaign to include Community-Based Prevention in Payment Reform.  As the State Legislature considers how to lower health care costs, this campaign calls on legislators to invest in community health measures — such as bike lanes and healthy food programs –  that can lower costs by preventing disease before it starts. Led by the Boston Public Health Commission, Health Care for All, Health Resources in Action, and the Massachusetts Public Health Association, this campaign asks the legislature to establish a trust that would be dedicated to community grants promoting preventative community measures.
Action Needed
We encourage other organizations and individuals to sign onto the campaign.  We urge you contact leadership of other organizations concerned about health, health costs, preventive efforts.
Click here for more information.
Email annie@jalsa.org to get involved in this project.

The need for more prevention measures was recently emphasized in this Boston Globe Article.

Remember to shop at Farmers’ Markets.   Good healthy fruit and vegetables available and more likely to feature food without heavy duty transportation costs.    Go to www.farmfresh.org and you can find farmers’ markets close to your home or office.

Sheila Decter, Executive Director
Jewish Alliance for Law & Social Action

The Paid Sick Days Act

July 24th, 2011 JALSA No comments

Paid sick policy could save Mass. $22m

Click here for Hearing Update and Media Coverage3

Updated: Thursday, 14 Jul 2011, 8:54 PM EDT

BOSTON, Mass. (WWLP) – In the spring, state Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development Joanne Goldstein said paid sick leave is a workers’ “basic right.” Now lawmakers are responding with legislation that could make it law.

The Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development held a hearing Thursday for a pair of bills that legally require businesses in Massachusetts to provide paid sick leave to their employees.

“The workers who cannot afford to take a sick day, those are the ones who don’t have it, the ones who are working for minimum wage,” Sen. Patricia Jehlen (D-Somerville), a lead sponsor of the bill.

“It’s about healthcare for all, it’s about social justice, equitable justice,” said Rep. Cheryl Coakley-Rivera (D-Springfield), who serves as House chairwoman of the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development.

In a research study conducted by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), results show that the Commonwealth could save $22.7 million dollars in emergency room costs with a paid sick leave policy.

Rep. Kay Khan (D-Newton), another lead sponsor of the bill, adds that her legislation will encourage a healthier work environment.

“I know I encourage people to stay out of my office if they’re ill because we don’t want to infect the entire office,” said Rep. Khan.

But small business owners insist that financially speaking, they’re already at the end of their rope. They’re struggling with mandatory health insurance, the recession and other employee obligations they can’t afford.

“This paid sick leave bill is one more high cost and small businesses have nothing left to give to this,” said William Vernon, the Massachusetts director of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).

Small business advocates add that the government shouldn’t interfere with private business and “one-size” paid sick leave legislation, “doesn’t fit all”.

“A lot of small employers have part-time employees, seasonal employees,” said Jon Hurst, the president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts. “A lot of those employees are not looking for benefits. They’re looking for higher pay per hour.

Opponents of the legislation express concern that sick benefits could be abused on a nice sunny day in Cape Cod, but supporters say it’s the workers who are being abused when they must choose between working while sick or taking a pay cut.

Mandatory paid sick laws are active in San Francisco, Milwaukee, and Washington D.C.

Healthy Food Availability – Join our efforts

June 4th, 2011 JALSA No comments

After an exciting series of First Friday speakers through the winter addressing the issue of food access as a health and environmental justice issue, JALSA leaders and staff have had a busy spring meeting with key leaders on this topic.  Gus Schumacher, former Undersecretary of Agriculture, has been working with us to explore the role that Doctors and Health-Insurers can play in promoting greater access to healthy resources and lifestyles for poorer communities struggling with lack of access to fresh food and places to exercise.
–Access to fresh healthy food is an important issue of equity.  Join us in our efforts in this preventative health measure to help increase such healthy food availability.    Call Annie Fox at JALSA: 617-227-3000 or email annie@jalsa.org