Along with helping people find the right resources, they’ll walk you through the application and referral process. Sometimes all you need is someone to be there with you as you slog through the bureaucracy, and it sounds like this program helps fit the bill. To apply for help, there’s a simple online or mail-in form application process. For more information, check out The CoverMe Foundation  web site or give them a call at 1 (877) 678-7631. From their recent press release:

The CoverMe Foundation was conceived as an organization to improve the overall health of citizens in our local communities as well as throughout the United States by assisting consumers in their efforts to locate and access healthcare coverage. Drawing from community resources, government assistance and select corporate partnerships the Foundation strives to facilitate reductions in the number of the uninsured and to improve the overall quality of life for our nation’s citizens.

A new study shows that one in four uninsured adults have a mental illness or substance abuse problem, or both. More and more states are providing free or low-cost healthcare programs, but few provide mental health programs, addiction services, or chronic disease management services.

Folks over at the the Healthcare for Uninsured  web site are working on ”Inclusion of Mental Illness and Substance use Disorders in State healthcare Reform Initiatives.” And they’ve written about implications and recommendations for healthcare reform. To read the full article, click here.

The “60 Minutes” segment featuring the work of Remote Area Medical® (March 2, 2008) generated one of the greatest audience responses to the CBS news program in the past 10 years. Echoing throughout that response was an overwhelming national outcry for RAM’s kind of help.

The REACH ACROSS AMERICA! goal is $1,000,000 and with help from compassionate citizens like you, RAM will develop the capability to:

• replicate the unique RAM model of free health care delivery to medically under served areas throughout the United States
• transport advance teams to prepare communities for RAM free clinics
• meet the scheduling constraints of RAM volunteer medical professionals
  willing to travel great distances to serve impoverished populations

RAM volunteers provide free care to tens of thousands of uninsured or underinsured people every year. Together, we can launch a nationwide effort that will relieve the pain and suffering of hundreds of thousands – and someday millions – more. Thank you for joining the RAM.

To make a donation, contact Remote Area Medical Foundation, 1834 Beech St., Knoxville, TN 37920 designated to RAM Airborn. Or, visit the RAM donation page. To find out about volunteering, click here. Some of their many great accomplishments are listed here.

From CBSnews.com . . .  ”In a matter of hours, Remote Area Medical set up its massive clinic, for a weekend, in an exhibit hall in Knoxville, Tenn. Tools for dentists were laid out by the yard, optometrists prepared to make hundreds of pairs of glasses, general medical doctors set up for whatever might come though the door. Nearly everything is donated, and everyone is a volunteer.”

. . . . “Marty Tankersley came with his wife and his daughter, asleep behind the front seats. Tankersley says he drove some 200 miles to get to the clinic and slept in the parking lot for hours.

“Just to have this done?” Pelley asked.

“Yes, sir. I’ve been in some very excruciating pain,” he replied.

To watch the RAM segment that appeared recently on the CBS NEWS television program 60 MINUTES please click here.

Read the full article here.

Health Care for America Now, an unprecedented coalition of major organizations including labor unions, large community-based membership groups, women’s groups, DC think tanks, doctors, nurses, small businesses, and leading netroots activists, will launch a new $40 million campaign to push for quality, affordable health care for every American.

“You can’t trust the insurance industry to fix the health care mess,” said the spokeswoman, Jacki Schechner. “We’re educating the public about our principles and what we’d like to see from the president and the new Congress.”

One cool thing is that they’re spending $1.5 million on television, print and online advertising, with $25 million more to follow. Check out their new national ad campaign video after the jump.

“That very well may be the best contribution that I have made in the 110th Congress, is slowing down, sometimes stopping Democratic-sponsored bills,” King said.

With people like him representing Iowans, who needs enemies? Give Mr. King’s office a jingle to let him know what you think of his reprehensible actions.

Rep. Steve King, 1609 Longworth Office Building, Washington D.C. 20515
Phone: 202.225.4426
Fax: 202.225.3193
email: http://www.house.gov/steveking/email.shtm
Read the full article here

In the U.S., by contrast, if you don’t have employer-based coverage and must buy your own coverage, insurers can charge you more based on your medical history and risk profile. And in most states, if they consider you too risky, they can simply refuse to sell you insurance altogether.

Because Dutch insurers must take all applicants, the government “obliges each person who legally lives or works in [the Netherlands] to buy individual private health insurance.” If the government didn’t insist that everyone buy insurance, many people would wait until they were sick before they applied—safe in the knowledge that the insurer would have to take them, and cannot hike the premium. Full article here.

In the Huffington Post article “It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way”, Ms. Broderick writes:

“All of us have stories about desperately ill friends and family who have faced the cold cruel reality of being denied treatment by an indifferent insurer. We have all had enough of Blue Cross, Assurant, Health Net, Cigna and the many other giant companies canceling coverage just when the patient needs and expects to be, well, insured against catastrophe. The simple truth is that the insurance industry is built on our premium payments, but it profits when it does not have to pay.” Full article here.

“The idea would be to give people all the legal, financial and practical information they need; so that when you first got that diagnosis and all these questions come charging at you, the answers

would all be there,” said Landay, who produced the Broadway show “Woman of the Year” with Lauren Bacall, Raquel Welch and Debbie Reynolds.  Read the full article.