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.