By Kathy Wray Coleman: Cleveland NAACP, 100 Black Men, Cleveland Health Department to hold ObamaCare open enrollment forum for people needing health care on Thursday, November 14, 2013, at University Circle United Methodist Church, Obama to speak in Cleveland that day
Pictured are Dr. Charles Modlin, Cleveland NAACP President The Reverend Hilton Smith (in red tie), Cleveland NAACP Executive Director Sheila Wright, 100 Black Men of Greater Cleveland President Terry Maynard (in gray tie), and United States President Barack Obama (in blue tie). Obama will speak in Cleveland on Thursday at Arcelor Mittal, one of the world's leading manufacturing and steel companies.
By Johnette Jernigan and Kathy Wray Coleman
CLEVELAND, Ohio- The Cleveland Chapter NAACP, in partnership with Black Clergy, the Greater Cleveland Chapter of 100 Black Men of America Inc., and the Cleveland Department of Health, will host a health care enrollment forum under the Affordable Care Act at 6 pm on Thursday, November 14, 2013 at the University Circle United Methodist Church, 1919 East 107th Street and Chester Avenue in Cleveland. (For more information on the community forum that organizers say is to help people without health care sign up contact the Cleveland NAACP at 216-231-6260 or Dr. Charles Modlin, chair of the Cleveland NAACP Health Committee, at 216-445-7500, or via email atModlinC@ccf.org). (Editor's Note: Thursday's health care forum comes on the day President Barack Obama will speak on jobs and the economy in Cleveland at ArcelorMittal, one of the world's leading manufacturing and steel companies. The Obama gathering at ArcelorMittal is not open to the public, though the Cleveland NAACP health care forum is a public event).
Cleveland NAACP Executive Director Sheila Wright said in a press release to Cleveland Urban News.Com, Ohio's most read online Black newspaper, that "we hope people come out and learn valuable information regarding the new health reform law."
The Cleveland NAACP, a local chapter of the nation's most prominent Civil Rights organization, is led by the Rev. Hilton Smith, an associate minister at the Greater Abyssinia Baptist Church in Cleveland and a vice president for community affairs with Turner Construction Company in Cleveland.
Ben Jealous, who announced that he will step down at the end of the year, is currently the president of the National NAACP.
100 Black Men of Greater Cleveland is led by Terry Maynard with a 10,000-membership national organization based in Atlanta, Georgia and led by chairman of the board Curley Doss Jr. Its mission includes empowering African-American teens and highlighting health and wellness issues impacting America's Black community.
Under the new federal law, which was passed by a
divided Congress in 2010 and survived a constitutional challenge last year to the U.S. Supreme Court, health care is subsidized based upon income, among other provisions
of the act.
There are really just two important dates to keep in mind for now, organizers of tomorrow's forum in Cleveland said. The first is December 15, 2013. That's the date by which people need to be signed up if they want health care coverage to begin Jan. 1, 2014 — the earliest any of these plans will take effect. The other date is February 15, 2014. That's the last day you can get coverage and avoid being liable for a penalty for not having insurance.The maximum penalty if you don't have coverage for the entire year is $95 or one percent of your taxable income, whichever is bigger. It will go up in future years, according to the newfederal law.
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