The H.I.V.E was thrilled to host an engaging and informational panel of superstars for its July meeting on Monday, July 24, 2017 including:

•  Doug Hoffman, former Finance Director of Children’s Hospital of Alabama, founder of Engage Alabama and Alabama’s first certified navigator for the Affordable Care Act.
• Katie Shuey, Director of State Government Relations at HealthSouth and sits on the Medicaid and Finance Committees at the Federation of American Hospitals.
• Dr. Marsha Sturdevant, Retired Medical Director of the William A. Daniel, Jr. Adolescent Health Center; Medical Director of the Adolescent Eating Disorders Clinic; Medical Staff at UAB Hospital, Children’s of Alabama and Cooper Green Mercy Hospital; Project Director of the Alabama Ryan White Part D Program and Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham

Our panelists covered The Need for the ACA (click for powerpoint presentation) including:

• The need for and design of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and how it related specifically to Alabama.
• Medicaid and the expansion (or lack of expansion as in Alabama) under the ACA, issues with the ACA, controlling costs and how we can move forward.
• Fundamental differences between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to healthcare. Republicans are mostly against the ACA because of the tax situation (the ACA gives 18 tax cuts). People also have issue with the individual mandate (although Katie pointed out the the first individual mandate dates back to John Adams who authorized the creation of a government operated marine hospital service and mandated that privately employed sailors be required to purchase health care insurance (read more here).

The panelists agreed to provide some talking points for a point paper on what can we do about the current healthcare situation including:

•  Listening to the issues and voting in upcoming elections with the viewpoints that align with yours
• Talking to people who don’t believe what we do and listening!

We also had some special guest at our meeting including Spencer Bowley with Planned Parenthood, Dana Ellis with MoveOn.org’s Neighborhood Listening Project on healthcare, Jennifer Geer with MAD in Alabama and Felicia Stewart, candidate for the Alabama House District 46.

We look forward to seeing everyone again on Thursday, August 17, 2017 at 7 p.m. at the Homewood Library, room 101 for a meeting on Education featuring Larry Lee and Trisha Crain.