The California Council of Churches has long been the largest faith-based organization in California actively working to achieve full equality and rights for all God's children, including our LGBTQ sisters and brothers.  We have filed many Amicus Briefs in support of marriage equality in state and federal courts.  Thanks to the ever-brilliant Eric Alan Isaacson, the brief he submitted on our behalf to the US Supreme Court last week is quoted in the article below.

May justice and equality prevail for ALL God's children!!

How Marriage Equality Opponents' Arguments Are Getting Turned Against Them
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2015/03/13/3632995/children-religious-liberty-tradition-supreme-court-marriage-equality/
 
To read the full brief: http://www.supremecourt.gov/ObergefellHodges/AmicusBriefs/14-556_California_Council_of_Churches.pdf    

Health Care Enrollments 2015 – CA Council of Churches Invites You to Help.

Dear Friends:

As most of you know, we have been engaged in Outreach and Education to help members of your congregations, neighborhoods, communities find out what is available in health care coverage via Covered CA health plans.

Now CCC is embarking on a new aspect of this work, applying for a Covered CA Navigator grant.

Navigators are trained certified enrollers who work with the health care Exchanges – the ‘marketplace’ where health care policies are available – to help people walk through health care options. Navigators help find what subsidies are available, help people understand who is eligible in their households and who is not (such as those on Medicare), what subsidies are offered, etc. Then the Navigator will help those applicants complete their applications.

Since congregations are the most trusted partners in any community, we are looking for those congregations that can:

- Provide people willing to be trained as Navigators who understand the complexities of the health care options in their areas;
- Have people who can help those with insurance re-apply for the next year;
- Offer space in recurring, regular NON-working hour periods such as weeknights and weekend times;
- Work closely with their communities and have outreach to underserved populations who may be employed in low-wage work’
- Have populations that qualify for Covered CA and not just Medi-Cal.

While Navigators may enroll people in Medi-Cal, our project statewide is to complete 1200 applications for insurance obtained through the Exchanges. We will have 8 months in which to do that. We need your congregation’s help achieving that goal. ONLY Covered CA completed enrollments are counted for our grant although Medi-Cal counts toward the Common Good.

Are you interested in becoming a partner with CCC to help this occur?

- CCC will make sure one or more of your congregational members or trusted allies is trained.
- CCC will be able to secure the background checks and fingerprinting at no cost to the Navigator.
- CCC will assure your Navigators or your congregations are eligible for reimbursement.

For each completed and enrolled application (what Covered CA terms an ‘effectuated application’) the Navigator or congregation will receive $58 whether the application is for an Exchange coverage or for Medi-Cal. This payment will continue as long as funds are available from the federal government.

It is critical that part of this work is reaching out to those eligible for the health care plans offered through the Exchange. That means anyone making $16,000 as an individual, or roughly $32,000 as a family would be Exchange eligible. This is a critical link in the sustainability of the whole health care provision.

We will be sending our application to Covered CA on or before July 28. We have a few congregational allies now, but we need YOU.

Please let us know as soon as possible if you are interested. There is no commitment, but it helps us see where our work needs to be. The largest pocket of those eligible for Covered CA health plans remains in Los Angeles, but everyone can participate – there are tens of thousands who still do not have any health insurance or who need new options due to life changes (births, deaths, marriage, divorce, job or income change).

This is a service you can offer your congregation, your neighbors, your community and receive income at the same time.

Please respond before the middle of the month to healthcare@calchurches.org to let us know if this is of interest to you and your congregations.

Thank you!