FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Resolution Endorsing Pennsylvania Office of the Public Healthcare Advocate Brought Before Philadelphia City Council by Minority Leader Kendra Brooks

Resolution Endorsing Pennsylvania Office of the Public Healthcare Advocate Brought Before Philadelphia City Council by Minority Leader Kendra Brooks


 Philly Residents to Speak At Council Meeting In Favor – New State Office Would Advocate for PA Residents and Safeguard Philadelphian’s Healthcare Rights After Election

Contact:  Jacob Hope | jawsjvh117@gmail.com | 215-317-8943

WHO: Put People First! PA, a statewide grassroots organization of working class PA residents that fights for healthcare as a human right.

WHAT: City Council introducing Resolution supporting the establishment of an Office of the Public Healthcare Advocate within the Office of the Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Philadelphia residents and members of Put People First! PA will share their personal stories with the healthcare system to show the potential impact of a Public Healthcare Advocate.

WHEN: Thursday November 14th, 10AM

WHERE: Philadelphia City Hall, City Council Room 400

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This Thursday, November 14th, Philadelphia City Councilmember Kendra Brooks will introduce a resolution calling on the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to establish an Office of the Public Healthcare Advocate within the Office of the Attorney General.

The office would directly assist residents in resolving wrongful insurance denials, overbilling, addressing issues caused by regional hospital closures, improving quality of care from medical providers, educate and inform residents as to their health care rights, and help to protect Pennsylvanians access to care under the new Presidential administration.

“My son was on blood thinners when he was denied Medicaid. He couldn’t get his medication anymore, and had a heart attack and died. I wish there was someone who could have fought for my son, like a Public Healthcare Advocate.” said Jeanette Murdock, a PPF! PA member and Philadelphia resident scheduled to speak before City Council on Thursday.

This resolution comes on the heels of the successful passage of a similar resolution calling for an Office of the Public Healthcare Advocate in Lancaster, PA City Council.

A link to the resolution is here: https://phila.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=13514994&GUID=8248691B-899C-4610-84BD-D5F4C8ADF767

Read the white paper on the proposed Office of the Public Healthcare Advocate, produced by Put People First! PA, here: https://www.putpeoplefirstpa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Final-PHA-report.pdf

Photo Report Back: 12th Annual Membership Assembly 2024!

From October 25-27th, 2024, Put People First! PA (PPF-PA) held our annual Membership Assembly, where we brought together PPF-PA leaders new and old from across Pennsylvania, as well as representatives of the Nonviolent Medicaid Army (NVMA) from across the country. This year we were also honored to have representatives of the Landless Workers Movement (MST) from Brazil, the Martin Luther King Center from Cuba and a leader of the poor from Tunisia.

Check out Put People First! PA’s facebook page for more photos from the weekend!

This year, our 12th year, was our largest Assembly yet, with over 150 people coming together across all lines of difference – age, culture, religion, race, immigration and documentation status, and geography. The gathering was planned by dozens of volunteer member-leaders, and co-constructed with every participant who attended. We gathered in Camp Hill, PA for a weekend of study, of sharing our healthcare stories, art and culture, lessons in organizing, and of strategizing to build this movement for our human right to healthcare and for a revolution of values that Martin Luther King, Jr. envisioned and insisted was necessary.

Highlights of the weekend included creating an altar, representing the spirit of the struggle, where we shared the history of the poor organizing the poor in our regions, from the movement to end slavery, to labor struggles, to the National Union of the Homeless, to the struggle of the landless workers in Brazil. Our host Healthcare Rights Committee, South Central, started the Assembly with a deep dive into the local People’s History. We then studied how we can unite the poor across all differences in our country and globally with a domestic and international panel and discussion. Sunday kicked off with a workshop on fighting against the Medicaid cut offs and breakouts on our tactics of #MedicaidMondays, People’s Clinics and Medicaid Sign Ups and Appeals. 

In between each of these sessions, we broke bread together. We built new relationships and deepened old ones. We mourned those we’ve lost, sang together, shared our pain and hope, and committed to the struggle ahead. 

We named our common oppressor: the system which is denying us our human rights to our basic needs, killing the people we love and destroying our planet, while committing genocide, waging war and putting deadly sanctions on the poor globally. At this divisive time, we came together across many differences to unite the poor and dispossessed statewide, nationally and internationally to commit to continue organizing for a future where our basic needs are treated as human rights here and across the globe.

Check out Put People First! PA’s facebook page for more photos from the weekend!

RSVP Today: Membership Assembly 2024, Oct 25-27!

Register here for the 12th Annual Put People First! PA Membership Assembly, Friday-Sunday, October 25-27, 2024!

The Put People First! PA (PPF-PA) Membership Assembly is our largest yearly gathering, open to brand new folks and experienced members. Join us from 5 pm Friday, October 25th, to 12 pm Sunday, October 27th, 2024 at a hotel in Camp Hill, PA. (You’ll receive the exact location after you register). We’re coming together from across the state, the country and internationally to build community and celebrate the year. We will reflect on what we’ve learned from our twelve years, strategize together, share art and culture, and envision the years ahead!

This year Put People First! PA will be holding our 12th Annual Membership Assembly as a fully in person event. More details to come for fully virtual attendance for members and national partners who are not able to attend in person.

The Membership Assembly will provide free of charge meals, snacks, childcare, transportation and housing, well as masks and COVID tests to take before and while gathering in person. We’ll have vans and carpools to transport members from different regions across the state. PPF-PA’s COVID protocols require that all in-person participants be vaccinated and have at least one booster. PPF-PA will provide at home tests for in-person participants to test before leaving for the Assembly Thursday and Friday mornings, as well as Saturday and Sunday morning at the assembly. Anyone who is exposed to Covid in the week leading up to the assembly (whether symptomatic or not) is required to contact the Covid safety team. Masks will be provided and are optional. If you have any questions or concerns about this policy, please let us know in this registration. These protocols will be sent to everyone who registers to review.

Register here TODAY! Registration deadline is Saturday, October 1st!

Please review the following agreements for the Assembly – and note that the assembly is an alcohol and substance-free space.

Community Agreements https://bit.ly/NVMACommunityAgreements

Covid safety protocol: https://bit.ly/PPFCovidSafetyMA2024

The Membership Assembly is FREE to attend. Donations are welcomed to offset the costs of this gathering. Remember, Put People First! PA is a member-led, staff free organization and all of our labor takes place on the basis of commitment, not compensation, including the extensive and time-consuming fundraising that allows us to hold the Membership Assembly. We recommend that everyone contribute at least $5 as you’re able. The actual cost is about $366 per person. Click here to donate: https://bit.ly/PPFDonationLink or via venmo: @UWATreasurer which goes to our fiscal sponsor, United Workers. Please note PPF-PA MA 2024 on your donation.

Forward together,

The Membership Assembly Planning Team

Nijmie + Jamie – Co-coordinators

Kiki – Central Appalachia

Briann, Jeremiah – Southwest

Carly, Jason, Matt – South Central

Nichole, Tara – Northeast

Madi, Jeanette, Steph – Southeast

Nonviolent Medicaid Army (NVMA) Week of Action, Sept 21-30, 2024

Take action with Put People First! PA and the PA Poor People’s Campaign to demand the PA Legislature Restore the Adult Dental Benefit in Medicaid NOW!

Join us Monday, September 30th in Harrisburg! Register here: https://bit.ly/WOARegistration2024

We need our teeth! Our teeth are NOT luxury bones!

Are you sick OF being denied dental care? Are you sick FROM being denied dental care?

Put People First! PA is taking action Monday, September 30th on the front steps of the Capitol located at 501 N 3rd St, Harrisburg PA 17120, at 12pm as part of the National Nonviolent Medicaid Army Week of Action.

CLICK HERE TO RSVP & Share on Facebook!

What is the Nonviolent Medicaid Army?
The Nonviolent Medicaid Army of the poor is a growing militant force of the poor and dispossessed, united across identities, regions, races and issues, modeled after MLK’s ‘nonviolent army of the poor’ from the first Poor People’s Campaign of 1968. We are currently active in states like Wyoming, Wisconsin, Texas, Indiana, Georgia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois, Maryland, North Carolina and Vermont. We are a member-led, staff-free network of organizations and committees that understand healthcare to be a strategic front of struggle to unite the working class.

https://nonviolentmedicaidarmy.org/

Put People First! PA is fighting to restore the Adult Dental Benefit back in Medicaid that was cut in 2011 which would improve the lives of over 3 million working people in Pennsylvania.

A bill passed the House but is stuck in the Senate!

Join us in Harrisburg September 30th at the Capitol! We won’t be silent anymore!!! Register here: https://bit.ly/WOARegistration2024

Want to learn more? Join us for our September 2024 Saturday School of Struggle, “Prep Rally” for the Nonviolent Medicaid Army Week of Action (September 21-28) RSVP on Facebook here and RSVP for the zoom link here!

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