Click here to read an article from the Local Health Care Foundation on the event.

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Next LOC meeting will be on Thursday, June 28th.   For CCO information, or to get involved in the CCO process, contact Linda Zappulla at: lzappulla@kc.rr.com.

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At the writing of this article, 162 Beth Torah members had completed the health care affordability questionnaire. By the time the survey has closed on September 18th, we hope to have more than 200 responses, to give us a detailed view of how health care costs are affecting our members.  

The research and exploration around health care costs has led us to envision possible solutions to our health care concerns. We considered new ways of  educating ourselves, finding consultation and support from others in our community that have learned before us, providing critical answers to urgent health care questions before we slip into crisis mode. We also explored reducing all health care costs by re-directing “super-users” of emergency rooms to convenient local clinics for non-emergency needs, and by focusing on hospital re-admission rates as an opportunity for change.

This CCO work is a new form of social justice: Our power rests in ALL OF US speaking out on an issue. Our work in the prior months, building relationships and sharing our concerns, is bearing fruit with real solutions on the horizon! We’re excited about the shape our work is taking and look forward to sharing our learnings and proposed action at an event to be scheduled this fall.

CCO at CBT welcomes your involvement. We meet monthly on Wednesdays at Beth Torah. For more information, contact Linda Zappulla at (913) 685-3521 or lzappulla@kc.rr.com.

Join us at two October opportunities to participate;
1.  Attend our interactive Yom Kippur study session on Saturday, October 8th. Hear first-hand of our progress in the last year, get the preliminary results of our health care survey, and develop relationships with your fellow members at Beth Torah, by learning and then participating in a one-to-one relational conversation.

2. Attend the city wide CCO action on Tuesday, October 18th, at 6:30 p.m. at Union Station - Communities Creating Opportunity Now: It’s On. More than 1,000 members of CCO congregations across the Kansas City metro will advocate for specific changes that will make Kansas City a better place. CCO congregations will call on elected officials and other leaders to help create economic security, and safe and healthy environments for families by taking specific action to:

• Reduce interest rates on payday loans and prevent unnecessary home foreclosures.
• Improve access to health care while lowering costs.
• Provide quality public education and restore the safety of neighborhoods blighted by crime.

CCO at Beth Torah hopes you will join us on this journey. Our next CCO/LOC Meeting will be held on  Wednesday, October 5th, 7:00 p.m.

Members of the CCO Local Organizing Committee at Beth Torah recently met with experts on various aspects of health care, continuing the ‘learn’ aspect of the CCO process.

1. Team members had a conference call with a member of a congregation in Boston, who shared her experience in gathering cost information from the community. Her group was able to demonstrate that assuming consumers could pay a given percent of their income for health insurance didn’t take into consideration the realities of financial responsibilities (such as previous debt, care of parents, tuition, etc.) This data turned out to be the baseline the state government used in establishing cost thresholds for state-wide health care when it was established.

2. The CCO Group met at Beth Torah to learn from Chuck Wells, a consultant to hospitals and health care providers and former chairman of the Kansas Health Institute. He expressed concern that consumers are disengaged from their true health care costs, due to negotiated rates with insurance companies, a cost structure based on Medicare, and employer coverage plans typically built into payroll deductions. He felt transparency of costs would be the most effective tool for change. Chuck was the most pessimistic of those we spoke with, concerned that the increasing costs of health care reform will fall back on those of us who are actually paying for our health insurance, and that we can’t anticipate the unintended consequences of massive reform like the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

3. A small group met to begin to identify needs and possible resources to help community members navigate the many entities they may have to deal with as they face major health insurance questions, including coverage for individuals and for children over or under age 26, Cobra, negotiating costs with providers, Medicare and Medigap, high risk pools and others. The first goal would be to understand existing resources, and then consider the cost/benefit of filling in potential gaps.

4. Two CCO members attended a Train the Trainer session at UMKC, where the group – primarily social workers - was given tools to educate their various constituents about health care reform. This meeting was the most optimistic of those we attended, noting that the ACA increased funding to primary care providers, community health centers and nursing faculties, and represents the first major change to health care since Medicare was introduced in 1965. Most inspirational was learning that better care can be achieved at lower costs, by reducing hospital-acquired conditions, preventable injuries, and hospital readmissions by better coordination among doctors, nurses, specialists and labs.

Much of our learning has been focused on the subject of costs - we believe this is a place where we can make a difference. We want to address this complicated issue in a way that fits the needs of Beth Torah members, and is specific to the time and place in which we live. We plan to host a meeting at the end of the summer/beginning of the fall to share what we’ve learned about the opportunities to impact health care and insurance in the KC metro area. We will also ask participants to share their needs (or the needs of their friends and family members) and we will consider possible action steps that intersect Beth Torah needs and external opportunities— conducting our own cost survey to determine what Beth Torah (and possibly Kansas community) members can actually afford to pay; further exploration of a community risk pool, and making it easier for Beth Torah members (and possibly the community) to gather the information that might be needed for contending with health care struggles. Expect to hear more details in the next few months.

We invite the CBT community to continue to listen, learn and act with us. Our next meeting is Thursday, August 30th, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Whether you have been involved before, or want to see what’s going on, you are welcome.
Please contact Linda Zappulla (lzappulla@kc.rr.com) for information and to get involved.

On April 27th, 2011, 20 Congregation Beth Torah members attended a Q&A Research Action to learn more about the Kansas implementation of the Affordable Health Care Act. Linda Sheppard, Director of the Accident and Health Division of the Kansas Insurance Department, led the session. The following are highlights of her responses to our questions:

There are two high-risk pools available in Kansas, especially for people with pre-existing conditions:

1. The existing state pool. This has 1,600 members who pay up to 128% of market rate for coverage. To qualify, you must be a state resident for 6 months and denied, or facing premiums higher than 128%. The Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) for this pool is 200% - two dollars paid out for care for every dollar paid in for premium.

2. The new federal pool. It has 170 members since it started less than a year ago, paying 100% of market rate. To qualify, you must be a US citizen, without coverage for 6 months, have a pre-existing condition certified by a doctor, and cannot move over from the state risk pool. MLR was projected at 400%, but is actually at 1,000%, based on actual costs and the composition of the pool - very small enrollment and very high cost of care delivered.

Linda described the eight working groups initiated to develop Kansas Health Care Exchange required for 2014. In an attempt to be transparent and inclusive in the process, these groups are open to all interested parties, with conference call lines that would allow us to listen and maybe even participate.

We also discussed the concept of creating a risk pool for the Jewish community. She educated us that the rate-setting methodology already combines individual purchasers into virtual pools with all the other individual purchasers. From an actuarial point of view, a pool needs to be very large to cover the risks. Historical groups (chambers of commerce and individual business associations) that have offered such pools have shut them down - only 2 remain in Kansas. Even 1 high cost individual can bring down an entire pool. When one of our members offered up the idea of a new risk pool proposal from the Jewish community, supported by an actuarial study, Linda thought it a good way to approach the request. A consideration here is that the time and cost it would take to fund and prepare the study (and get various groups involved) could take up most, if not all of the time between now and 2014, when all the rules will change to an unknown state with the next stage of implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

CCO team members left the discussion shocked that the Affordable Care Act appears to be more about access than affordability. We were surprised to learn the working groups are not about cost; they are focused on implementation of the Kansas Health Exchange by the 2014 date.

With the goal of affordable health care for all, the CCO team plans to do the following:

1. Assess the viability of pursuing a risk pool for the Jewish community.

2. Pursue information about costs so that we can influence the implementation of the Affordable Care Act to include consideration of the cost to consumers, as so many CBT stories have addressed.

3. Assess the challenges individuals face in researching their options, as well as the ‘simple’ task of filling out insurance applications, where a single answer could re-direct one into a risk pool. A potential resource could be services offered by JFS.

Next CCO Meetings:
June 15, 2011, 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. at CBT (in lieu of the previously announced May 26th meeting)

June 30, 2011, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at CBT

For those who are interested in planning a citywide action with all CCO member congregations,
contact Joy Friedman about the upcoming CCO Metropolitan Leadership Assembly
June 2, 2011, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.; St. Therese Parish Center, 5814 Euclid Ave, Kansas City MO 64130

For CCO information, or to get involved in the CCO process, contact Linda Zappulla at: lzappulla@kc.rr.com.

Click here to download our 1-to-1 Conversation Form

• On January 30th Beth Torah held its first research action. Members of the CBT Local Organizing Committee (LOC) met with Anna Lambertson, Executive Director of the Kansas Health Consumer Coalition. Led by Barry Daneman, the group began to learn about how the Affordable Care Act (ACA) affects the accessibility and affordability of health care for Kansans who are uninsured, high-risk, have pre-existing conditions and/or special health needs, as well as how CCO/CBT can influence implementation of the act locally.

• As we understand more about the ACA, we begin to identify people we should reach out to – legislators, regulators, insurance department, Medicaid team - and additional questions we need to ask.

• The ACA is complex and changes over time. As we explore the implications of this act, one of the questions we’ll be exploring is the potential cost of health insurance to Kansas residents as implementation continues.

Next steps
1. The group will continue research to understand the political landscape and possible areas of action, while holding 1-to-1 meetings to better understand the healthcare needs of, and to build relationships with CBT members.
2. Additional 1-to-1 training was conducted, and the CCO team will reach out to the congregation to conduct health-related meetings with CBT members to hear our stories and learn more about our specific concerns. You may be invited into a conversation, or feel free to call to share your story.

For CCO information, or to get involved in the CCO process, contact Linda Zappulla at: lzappulla@kc.rr.com.

In December and January the CBT Employment group conducted an employment survey of members and met with Jewish Employment Service (JES) to learn more about its services and how CBT can work more closely with the agency, to assist CBT members seeking new employment. About 70 CBT members responded to the survey, 30 of whom are looking for new employment. While many members are willing or able to share job openings or network with CBT members, it seems that JES has a process and provides a broader resource, including a Job Club, with which CBT members could become more involved, both as job seekers and as resources. Please feel free to continue to contact CBT member Steve Becker at thelowerlevel@yahoo.com and he will help put you in touch with Gayl Reinsch at JES, or you may contact Gayl directly at employment@jfskc.org. JES is a joint program of Jewish Family Services and Jewish Vocational Services whose goal is helping unemployed persons in the Jewish community become employed.

JES services available (There is a small charge for career counseling sessions for those able to pay):

• Career assessment
• Resume assistance
• Networking skills
• Interviewing preparation
• Job search strategies
• Guidance and connection to jobs

JES has a Job Club that presents speakers and interactive sessions on topics of interest to job seekers. Job Club meetings are held the 2nd and 4th Mondays from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. at the JCC (room varies). Everyone is encouraged to attend these free sessions!

What’s keeping Beth Torah members up at night? Throughout this year, CBT held a listening campaign, primarily in House Meetings, where more than 100 members of the congregation shared their personal stories. On September 12th, over 200 members met in the sanctuary for the CCO Call to Action at CBT, where they heard a selection of stories that illustrated the predominant threads that emerged from all the stories:

• Congregation members are worried their life or that of a loved one is not what they expected, due to health, financial and/or employment concerns. “I am one crisis away from disaster.”

• Congregation members want Beth Torah to be a place they can engage meaningfully with others, and a community that welcomes, supports and honors the full range of their life’s experiences. “I thought I was the only one who felt this loneliness.”

CCO (Communities Creating Opportunity) is teaching us organizing - new ways to come together, to listen and to be heard, and to build the Power of Community. In our culture, we tend to face our challenges alone. Through organizing we have found a vehicle to connect people, to share our difficulties, and to harness our collective energy to exert power for change.

More than 130 members of the congregation signed up to get involved. We met on Thursday, October 21th at 7:00 p.m. at Beth Torah to take the next step in the process – beginning to research one or several topics to learn more about the issue, identify the people or entities that might have the power to change things, and what kind of action Beth Torah members could take to make change happen.

Listening to the stories of our fellow members connects us to each other – we begin to feel heard and to feel known and to feel accepted. Acting on what we learn makes our community a better place. Acting together reminds us we are not alone, as we build the Power of Community.

For CCO information, or to get involved in the CCO process, contact Linda Zappulla at: lzappulla@kc.rr.com.