Each month, the Medicare Task Force members meet to plan, strategize, and stay up to date on legislative developments affecting Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and other vital programs to low-income seniors.
the Medicare Task Force meets on the third Thursday of each month at 11:30 a.m. at the Champaign Public Library at 200 W. Green St. in Champaign. For more information or to RSVP for the next meeting, call us at (217) 352-6533.
CCHCC believes that one aspect of health care justice is a healthy environment. People deserve to live in safe and healthy neighborhoods with unpolluted water and soil and clean, fresh air. Issues of environmental protection often intersect with environmental racism and issues of poverty. Working on environmental health and justice issues frequently requires working in coalition or collaboration with other community-based organizations.
In the past, CCHCC has participated in the community organizing campaign that resulted in the closing of a medical waste incinerator that was emitting toxic pollution into a low-income neighborhood in Champaign-Urbana.
CCHCC is also working to protect the Mahomet Aquifer from toxic waste being dumped at the Clinton Landfill. The landfill, which is owned by PDC/AREA Disposal, sits directly above the Mahomet Aquifer, and has created a new kind of dump in order to receive highly toxic, carcinogenic chemical wastes, including Manufactured Gas Plant (MGP) and polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) wastes.CCHCC first organized the Medicare Task Force in 2005 to work for rights of Medicare beneficiaries. The Medicare Task Force is led by Medicare beneficiaries who are demanding a voice in their Health Care.
The Medicare Task Force advocated and organized for a REAL prescription drug benefit. We support the creation of a Medicare-administered prescription drug program with the authority to negotiate discounted drug prices.
In addition, the Medicare Task Force provides a forum to educate local Medicare beneficiaries about the current Part D Program and other services available to Medicare beneficiaries in our community.
The Medicare Task Force is working to protect, strengthen, and improve Medicare and other vital programs like Medicaid and Social Security.
The Medicare Task Force is also working to address the hearing health care crisis in our community. We put together this Low Cost Hearing Aid Guide to help consumers find quality, affordable hearing aids.
CCHCC’s Campaign for the American Dream is a local grassroots organizing effort to support the growing nation-wide “American Dream” movement.
The American Dream movement is a national grassroots movement for comprehensive progressive change to restore the American Dream in our country – so that Americans have access to affordable quality health care, can find jobs, afford to go to college, retire with dignity, and secure a future for their children and their communities.
The American Dream movement proposes 10 concrete policy and legislative priorities to get our nation’s economy and democracy back on track. These ten priorities are embodied in the “Contract for the American Dream” and are the following:
1. Invest in our country’s infrastructure.
2. Create 21st-century energy jobs.
3. Invest in public education.
4. Offer Medicare for all.
5. Make work pay.
6. Secure Social Security.
7. Return to fairer tax rates.
8. End the wars and invest at home.
9. Tax Wall Street speculation.
10. Strengthen democracy.
To view the Contract for the American Dream in its entirety, click here.
The preamble to the “Contract for the American Dream” states:
“We, the American people, promise to defend and advance a simple ideal:liberty and justice… for all. Americans who are willing to work hard and play by the rules should be able to find a decent job, get a good home in a strong community, retire with dignity and give their kids a better life. Every one of us – rich, poor or in-between, regardless of skin color or birthplace, no matter their sexual orientation or gender –has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That is our covenant, our compact, our contract with one another. It is a promise we can fulfill – but only by working together.”
Contract for the American Dream
Press Conference to Launch the Campaign for the American Dream – 10/27/11