Women With A Vision is excited to join the Raising Women’s Voices campaign to help women get covered under the Affordable Care Act insurance plans. The RWV campaign is an initiative between several national state and local health advocates who are committed to making the promise of health reform real for women. The campaign is working to make sure women’s voices are heard and women’s concerns are addressed as policymakers put the health care law into action. The initiative has a particular focus on how health care reform can advance the health needs of those who are low-income women, women of color, immigrant women, lesbians, young women, and women with disabilities – women who are not often invited into health policy discussions.
WWAV was chosen as one of RWV’s new regional coordinators for the campaign in the South. Catherine Haywood, a WWAV co-founder and our Community Health Coordinator, will be taking the lead for us, working with health and social service agencies and community leaders to bring information and awareness about the ACA to local residents.
WWAV is excited to join this educational effort to help our community learn about what health reform can mean to their lives and health. WWAV has been working for more than twenty years to reduce disparities and to bring better health care to our communities, many of whom face significant barriers to access due to social determinants like gender, race, sexual orientation, income, and gender identity. Women of color and the LGBTQ community are particularly at risk of facing significant health disparities, and they are amongst the most uninsured and underinsured populations in the United States. Because of our work with marginalized women, women of color, and the LGBTQ community, as the health reform law gets implemented, WWAV will be focusing on making sure that the communities who have been traditionally left out, find access to health care for themselves and their families under the new law.
Check out RWV’s fact sheets for more information about the ACA’s impact on women, the LGBTQ community, and women of color.
Open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act ends March 31, 2014. If you are in the New Orleans area and you or your family needs assistance with signing up for the Affordable Care Act or Medicaid, please contact WWAV’s offices at (504) 301-0428.