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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (July 5, 2017)
Page 6 July 5, 2017 New Prices Effective April 1, 2017 O PINION Martin Cleaning Service Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning Residential & Commercial Services Minimum Service CHG. $50.00 A small distance/travel charge may be applied CARPET CLEANING 2 Cleaning Areas or more $30.00 each Area Pre-Spray Traffic Areas (Includes: 1 small Hallway) 1 Cleaning Area (only) $50.00 Includes Pre-Spray Traffic Area (Hallway Extra) Stairs (12-16 stairs - With Other Services) : $30.00 Area/Oriental Rugs: $25.00 Minimum Area/Oriental Rugs (Wool) : $40.00 Minimum Heavily Soiled Area: $10.00 each area (Requiring Extensive Pre-Spraying) UPHOLSTERY CLEANING Sofa: $69.00 Loveseat: $49.00 Sectional: $109 - $139 Chair or Recliner: $25.00 - $49.00 Throw Pillows (With Other Services) : $5.00 ADDITIONAL SERVICES • Auto/Boat/RV Cleaning • Deodorizing & Pet Odor Treatment • Spot & Stain Removal Service • Scotchguard Protection • Minor Water Damage Services SEE CURRENT FLYER FOR ADDITIONAL PRICES & SERVICES Call for Appointment (503) 281-3949 Health Care Proposal Built on Inequality Epitomizes separate and unequal m arjorie i nnoCent In 1954, Thurgood Marshall and a team of NAACP attorneys ar- gued the landmark civil rights case, Brown v. Board, before the Supreme Court. They demonstrated to the Justices that segregated schools violat- ed the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause -- that separate was and would always be unequal. Our representatives are on the brink of instating a health care plan that epitomizes separate and unequal. Thirteen U.S. Senators -- all white men -- sat behind closed doors in Washington, D.C. and crafted a replacement to the Af- fordable Care Act. Their proposed bill, the Better Care Reconciliation Act, based off of the House’s American Health Care Act, would only benefit peo- ple like themselves -- healthy, wealthy white men -- and quaran- tine the rest of the country into the confines of high cost, low quality health care. The Senate’s inequitable pro- tection plan would disproportion- ately hurt the sick, the poor, the elderly, women, and people of col- or. It would make healthcare more expensive for seniors and people by who are already sick, increase out- of-pocket costs for doctor’s visits, slash subsidies to help low-in- come people pay for health insur- ance, and cut Medicaid support to states by three-quarters of a trillion dollars. In more than 20 years as a health and social policy professional, I have witnessed the dire consequences of African Americans living without health care, and I have watched the ACA repair some of the most egregious inequities in our health care sys- tem. If the Senate bill passes, the impact will be devastating, and, in many cases, lethal. The current version of the Senate’s health care plan is pro- jected to cause some 22 million people to lose their coverage by 2026, including 15 million next year. It also proposes to cut more than $772 billion from the Med- icaid program over ten years and phase out additional funding for its expansion. At the same time, the bill proposes tax cuts of $700 billion that will largely benefit high-income individuals and big businesses -- especially profiting the top one percent of earners. In effect, cuts to Medicaid for the poor and to premium subsidies for low-income people will serve to refund the rich. The plan grants several allow- ances to states that hold the po- tential for serious harm. It permits states to opt out of providing es- sential health benefits that made coverage under the ACA more comprehensive, such as materni- ty and mental health care. States that opt out of providing these essential benefits would receive their share of $112 billion over 10 years to help offset the states’ cost for covering those who need care most and likely set up high-risk insurance groupings. This provi- sion would incentivize states to mark up the cost of coverage for people with certain needs, ostra- cizing them to their own costly risk pool. But the sick are not the only ones that the Senate plan puts at risk: under the new bill, low-in- come families and individuals would also be significantly hurt by the cuts to Medicaid. Proposed changes to Medicaid would make it more likely that states will re- duce much-needed services or cut back enrollment. The resulting increased cost of care would be hurtful to elderly Americans, most of whom experience a decline in income, but they would be espe- cially crippling to African-Ameri- can seniors, who experience pov- erty at twice the rate of their white counterparts. The ACA cut the uninsured rate for African-American adults by almost half between 2010 to 2015 and eliminated the inequity in uninsured rates between Afri- can-American and white children. For the first time in history, thanks to the ACA, a black child is no longer more likely to be uninsured than a white child. The new bill threatens to undo all of this progress. Suddenly, health care and insurance will once again be out of reach for many African Americans, nearly a quarter of whom were living be- low the poverty line in 2015. Further, the GOP-led plan is an assault on the health of women of all races. The bill would prevent Planned Parenthood from receiv- ing federal funding for at least one year, including Medicaid and Title X, despite its status as a source of care for services that women need, such as contraception and screen- ings for cancers and STDs. Our nation does not need a new health reform law. The ACA is the most comprehensive legislative effort to improve and democra- tize health care access in our na- tion’s history. We need to bolster the ACA’s promises of progress, not regress to conditions that were unacceptable then and are indefensible now. We need Con- gress to develop policies that help prevent illness, better manage disease, and facilitate health and well-being in our society overall. Our government’s focus should be on repairing and strengthening the ACA, not replacing it--much less with a dangerous, divisive alternative. It is time to put all of America first. Marjorie Innocent is senior director for NAACP Health Pro- grams.