Covered California Update

 

Updates on possible impacts to California with proposed health care reforms to the existing federal Affordable Care Act

 

• In the face of federal uncertainty about the future of the Affordable Care Act, Covered California recently released its health plans and rates for 2018. You can view all the new Covered California rates and participating health plans here. The open enrollment period for Covered California’s 2018 coverage year is set to begin on Nov. 1, 2017.
• Studies by Covered California and by independent fiscal and health policy experts have concluded that recent proposed Congressional legislation to repeal, replace, or modify the Affordable Care Act – which Congress ultimately failed to pass with the majority votes needed as of July 28, 2017 – would have increased the ranks of the uninsured in California and significantly increased health care costs for millions more consumers. Covered California will continue to assess the potential impacts of any new, proposed federal health care policies, and focus on assuring that we administer the law that exists today. You can find more information on Covered California’s current analyses and data here.

 

Covered California’s Special Enrollment Period now underway:

• Covered California has worked very hard to build a competitive market that has helped millions of Californians get quality health care coverage. We want to make sure people know that Covered California is going strong, open for business and will be here for the foreseeable future.
• Though Covered California’s annual open-enrollment period for 2017 coverage ended in Jan. 2017, you can still enroll in Covered California health plans through the Special Enrollment process until Oct. 31, 2017, if you have qualifying life events, such as:

o   You lose your health care coverage because you have lost or changed job.

o   You have a baby, adopt a child or place a child for adoption or in foster care.

o   You get married or enter into a domestic partnership.

o   You turn 26-years-old.

o   You move and gain access to new Covered California health insurance plans that were not available where you lived previously.

o    You become a U.S. citizen, national, or lawfully present individual.

• For more information about Covered California’s Special Enrollment, visit www.CoveredCA.com where you can enroll online or get information about obtaining free, confidential in-person assistance in a variety of languages from a local certified enroller in your area. You can also have a certified enroller contact them within minutes through the new “Help on Demand” feature.

Covered California open enrollment starts on Nov. 1, 2017!

Stay tuned for more health care updates from us soon!

Advertisements

My poem for today

Life

Life is full of difficult moments

That can you make you feel weak

But there is a way to greatness

That you can achieve and succeed in

 

So don’t stay down

Where the water is deep and cold

Rise to achieve

Never give up and just bleed to achieve

 

Sacrifices are needed to achieve greatness

So keep pushing and don’t weep

With you, anything is possible

As long as you believe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Current Edition

View this document on Scribd

Know Your Rights Forum

View this document on Scribd

Covered California: Community College Students Apply Now

“College, Covered California and You” by Covered California

With more than 2.1 million students attending 113 colleges the California Community Colleges (CCC) system is the largest system of higher education in America.* The schools prepare the backbone of California’s economy by training California’s nurses, police, firefighters, welders, auto mechanics, airplane mechanics and construction workers. The system also reinvigorates California’s economy by retraining students who are pursuing a second career or looking to re-enter the workforce.

Health insurance is key, not only for the students, but their parents and part-time CCC faculty and staff who may also be uninsured.

About Covered California

Covered California is the place where you can get brand-name health insurance.

It’s the only place to get financial help, which approximately 90 percent of Covered California consumers receive, to help buy private insurance from companies. That means you may qualify for a discount on private insurance, or get health insurance through the state’s Medi-Cal program.

Despite the recent presidential election, the coverage and financial help offered through Covered California will remain intact for 2017.

Enrollment through Covered California:

Open enrollment runs from Nov. 1, 2016 through Jan. 31, 2017.  Consumers must enroll by Dec. 15 to have their coverage start Jan. 1, 2017.

2.8 million people have been covered at one time or another since 2014.

Coverage Basics:

Consumers have access to the best doctors, best hospitals and best care in the state.  Most outpatient care is not subject to a deductible in Silver, Gold and Platinum plans including primary care visits, specialist visits, lab tests, X-rays and imaging. Even consumers in Covered California’s most affordable Bronze plans are allowed to see their doctor or a specialist three times before the visits are subject to the deductible.

Free and Confidential Help

Covered California has tens of thousands of certified enrollers ready to provide free and confidential in-person assistance in a wide variety of languages.  This includes:

• More than 800 storefronts statewide;
• More than 14,000 certified insurance agents for individuals and small business.
• Nearly 21,000 service center experts (including insurance agents) on the phone and online. Our new online “Help on Demand” tool ensures consumers get a call back from an expert enroller within 45 minutes.

Here is the link for more information: http://www.coveredca.com/

Press Release of Covered California:

View this document on Scribd

Photography by Willy Clifford Young III

Photography by Walden Tucker

Sutter livelihood

Storming Hills

Lone Forrest

Joy

Abandoned Education

Is Clone Meat Labeling Necessary? By Grant Goolsby

Cloned meat was approved for human consumption without the requirement of being labeled as “cloned meat” in 2008. Cloning animals in a laboratory has been done since 1996, when the animal known as Dolly the sheep was successfully cloned. Dolly was cloned in Scotland and was the first attempt at cloning by Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer. Dolly made history and is the most famous cloned animal ever.

Cloning has been done in nature for ages by the splitting of an embryo, which would be known as a twin. Cloning in a laboratory is done in two ways. One is by using the natural method of cloning, but doing it in a petri dish. This makes multiple copies of a combination of the parents. In other words, this is manmade identical twins, triplets, etc. The second method of cloning is explained by Learn.Genetics as Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer. The site states, “To make Dolly, researchers isolated a somatic cell from an adult female sheep. Next they removed the nucleus and all of its DNA from an egg cell. Then they transferred the nucleus from the somatic cell to the egg cell. After a couple of chemical tweaks, the egg cell, with its new nucleus, was behaving just like a freshly fertilized egg. It developed into an embryo, which was implanted into a surrogate mother and carried to term.”(What is Cloning, par. 6)

Simply put, one form of cloning makes multiple exact offspring of two parents and another makes an exact offspring of one animal. The argument that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) makes on why cloned meat is safe is that it is an exact copy of a normal animal. They came to this answer over a time period of twelve years, which is a very considerable time that is given to the study of one process. In respect for all citizens that may advocate against cloning, the FDA has published an article defending the reasoning of their step-by-step analysis on cloning. They make clear that the FDA was instituted for scientific reasons, to ensure the safety of food and drugs, but still provide reasoning for their ruling in support of the people.(“Response to Cloning,” sec. 5-6)

The US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health argues that, “Cloning may cause long term health defects, a study by French scientists has suggested. A two-month-old calf, cloned from genes taken from the ear of an adult cow, died after developing blood and heart problems. The cloning process seemed to have interfered with the normal genetic functioning of the developing calf, according to the researchers whose findings are reported in the Lancet.”(Jones, par. 1)

One of the main reasons that Americans want clone meat to be labeled is because of how cloning can affect the animals. The fact that cloned animals are flooded with antibiotics before and at birth to keep them alive can be very alarming and possibly harmful to consumers. (“Response to Cloning,” sec. Comments of FDA’s conclusion on animal health) Normal births require little to no antibiotics. They are generally only required when a human has to assist in the delivery of an animal. In cloning, the process is unnatural, which causes the clone offspring to have low immune systems. Antibiotics are in most cases the only things that keep clones alive at birth.

One aspect of cloning in our society that many people do not consider when evaluating the effects of cloning on citizens is the moral beliefs of others. Many people may find that they do not believe in cloning because of their religion. Some say that cloning mocks God or whatever being they worship. Gallup, an online polling company, did a poll that showed out of four religions, an average of sixty-four percent believed cloning was morally unacceptable and half of those without a religion found cloning morally unacceptable. (Jones, tbl. 2) We distinguish beef from pork not just for our recipes, but also for religions such as the Jews, which choose not to eat pork as a part of their religion. Our country has strong religious people and should not choose any act or law that ignores the freedom of religion that is a right to our people.

The way that we should handle human rights is explained by Mary Ann Glendon, who states, “The proper course, it seems to me, is for church leaders and people of good will to make every effort to connect the human-rights project to an affirmation of the essential interplay between individual rights and democratic values.”(Glendon, par. 17)

I do not believe that cloning is necessarily bad to do, but I do believe that it is the responsibility of our government and its agencies to be a government “for the people,” as the constitution describes.  It is not wise for the FDA to ignore the lack of testing in the cloning industry. The FDA has specifically said they cannot approve sheep to not be labeled because of the lack of successful test performed for that animal. I have personally heard that we should label clones for our consumer rights. But, I have heard that it can cost business millions of dollars that do not need to be spent on labeling.

An extremely well known example of technology changing over time would be how the world thought of smoking before we realized the dangers in cigarettes. Smoking was considered good and even a healthy habit before the world realized that it was the main cause of lung and many other types of cancer, not to mention the other health issues that come with this addicting substance. This proves the knowledge we have about cloning can change drastically. But in the end, a clone is a clone. And a flaw has not happened so far.

 

CHICANA/O STUDIES AA DEGREE LAUNCHED AT WCC SPRING 2017 By Professor Melissa Moreno

Starting Spring 2017, Woodland Community College students can for the first time pursue an AA degree in Chicana/o Studies as part of their educational journey. The Ethnic Studies program is excited to announce this new degree, which includes courses like Introduction to Chicana/o Culture, Chicana/o and Latina/o Health Care Issues, Survey of Chicana/o Art, and sociology course electives. These courses directly articulate with the University of California, UC Davis, and one course directly articulates with California State University, CSU Sacramento, which offers only one lower division Chicana/o Studies course. The Chicana/o Studies courses meet WCC, CSU, and UC General Education requirements in Social Science and Humanities, and standards for transfer agreements with the California State University and the University of California educational systems.

“Having a Chicana/o Studies AA degree would mean having an institutional opportunity for students to develop the academic and culturally relevant leadership practices that are needed locally and nationally”, says Superintendent of Yolo County of Schools Jesse Ortiz, a former Woodland Community College Counselor, Chicano Studies course instructor, and former Woodland School Board trustee.

The primary goal for the Chicana/o Studies AA degree is to prepare students for further study in Chicana/o Studies or a social science or humanities course of study leading to BA, MA, and/or Ph.D. degrees in education, counseling, social work, law, health, human ecology, or other areas. Students will be prepared to meet this goal by completing a series of courses that will provide them with the base knowledge needed to be competent to transfer to a university or work an entry-level job in community development. The Chicana/o Studies AA degree supports the College’s mission and curriculum offerings, as well as statewide master planning, in providing quality degrees, transfer education, life-long career skills, and civic leadership preparation for the communities we serve by focusing on curriculum emphasizing personal and social responsibility, global awareness, and critical thinking. The Chicana/o Studies AA degree does not cause undue competition with existing programs at another college in the area because no other community college in the district offers a similar degree. The need for this degree fits with the college’s master plan and it does not require new facilities. The Chicana/o Studies degree will operate out of the Ethnic Studies Program.

“The Ethnic Studies program is glad to foster the study of Chicana/o Studies especially in a designated Hispanic Serving Institution located in a community with a high school district that has already approved the Ethnic Studies requirement,” stated Professor Cireno Rodriguez, who is an Ethnic Studies Adjunct faculty and also a WJUSD Board of Trustee as well as a retired California State University Professor.

 “This degree is such an important access point for all in this community, especially for Chicanas/os of every age and social background. This degree is perhaps the only attainable and affordable education in this local community and region that highlights the history and contributions of Chicanas/os, a native population to the northern hemisphere. Colleges with degrees like this are cultural inviting, not just culturally sensitive. Having this degree can make the college more culturally inviting. This degree will educationally motivate, raise historical and educational awareness among the new generation, as well as increase a sense of belonging in educational institutions,” said UC Davis Chicana/o Studies Faculty, Natalia Deeb-Sossa.

This effort to develop the Chicana/o Studies AA degree came in part because it was part of the full-time Ethnic Studies job description in 2008 and it was also encouraged by Senate Bill SB 1440, which called for a transfer process for community college students. The Chicana/o Studies AA degree is designed to address the educational preparation for local college requirements, transfer preparation, and university articulation requirement course needs. Historically the college is located in a community which is 47% Chicano/Latino, with a 49% Chicano/Latino student population that is not the majority of college graduates each year. With demographic changes and educational challenges, the Daily Democrat noted that in 2006 students and community members mobilized to request that the college offer an AA degree in Chicana/o Studies. Now the campus is a designated Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), with still one full time Chicana instructional faculty out of thirty-three full-time instructional faculty. The nearest CSU is a Hispanic Serving Institution and the nearest UC aims to acquire HSI status as well. The local community has identified a need to increase the enrollment, retention, and graduation of students in college. 78% of the students served by existing Ethnic Studies courses are young adults (ages 24 and under), a significant generation setting out to seek educational and various other career opportunities. 66% of the Ethnic Studies course student population is Chicano/Latino compared to 45% in the school. Interestingly, The Ethnic Studies courses serve more Chicanos/Latinos compared to any other ethnic group.

“I congratulate our colleagues at Woodland Community College for this landmark achievement of building a transfer pathway for students in a degree that is community-responsive and relevant for 21^st century learners. As a Chicana/o Studies undergraduate myself, I can attest that students from all backgrounds will greatly benefit from being exposed to curriculum and educational experiences that position them to be leaders and change agents in any profession,” stated Francisco Rodriguez, Chancellor of the Los Angeles Community College District and former Executive Dean at Woodland Community College.

If you would like more information about the Chicana/o Studies degree see https://wcc.yccd.edu/pdf/academics/SocialScience/Ethnic%20Studies/2016-07-WC_ProgramofStudy_forETHN_Degree.pdf or contact your counselor, the Ethnic Studies Program, and/or join the WCC Ethnic Studies facebook page for updates and announcements.

Save the Date “All People Celebrate Ethnic Studies Today and Tomorrow” Educational Event

Saturday, March 4, 2017

Pioneer High School from 8 am to 3 pm

Keynotes speakers, workshops, art display, and more

Emcee LACCD Chancellor Francisco Rodriguez

Sponsored by WCC Ethnic Studies, YCOE, and WJUSD

To RSVP or more information contact Professor Melissa Moreno