by Alta L. Price, M.D.Cover the Uninsured Week is a project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It is a great annual opportunity to hold local health care reform events, and we want to encourage you to check it out and plan your own event or participate in other ways. Covertheuninsured.org gives us the facts, the ideas, and the tools we need in one convenient location. And there is even free stuff available, if you plan early!
Covertheuninsured.org is a great source for information about the issue. Did you know that someone in America dies every 24 minutes because they were uninsured and couldn’t get the health care they needed? You can get state-specific information, too. Check out the state of Iowa page. You’ll find a summary of how we are doing in Iowa at providing health care to our population, and a pdf file with more details. There is a very cool Guide to Finding Health Insurance Coverage specifically for Iowa.
Next see the How to Help section, with suggestions for events you can plan in your community. Here in the Quad Cities we have had Cover the Uninsured Week events for at least the last four years, and we will this year as well. In previous years we have gotten Cover the Uninsured Week proclamations from local mayors (and once the Governor of Iowa), held prayer vigils, asked congregations to say a prayer or faith leaders to preach on the issue, held press conferences, and hosted viewings of the documentary, Collateral Damage: Bad Medicine in Tennessee (which is how we know Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen would be a horrible choice for Secretary of Health and Human Services).
When I finally had the courage to invite other physicians and hospital employees to come to our Cover the Uninsured Week viewing of that documentary, I discovered that I am not the only physician interested in health care reform. Who knew?
Because of my activism on the issue,
I was even invited to serve on the Executive Committee of my local
Medical Society. This year the Medical Society is one of a broad range
of cosponsors for one of our local Cover the Uninsured Week events.
(More on that next week. As you might notice, no events are listed at
the Cover the Uninsured Week website for Iowa! We are finalizing some
details before posting our events. Hopefully, some of the rest of you
just haven’t gotten around to listing your events yet. 
Alta Price is a physician practicing Pathology in Davenport, Iowa. One of the original Deaniacs, she stays involved with Democracy for America, Iowa, and the Quad Cities. She advocates for quality, affordable health care for all, primarily as a volunteer with Progressive Action for the Common Good (Health Care Reform Issue Forum). Watch for Dr. Price's Health Care Reform Update every Tuesday here on Blog for Iowa. E-Mail Alta Price
