Barbara Lee

OPINION: Rep. Barbara Lee Urges Constituents to Take Advantage of Opportunities to Get Health Insurance

Special enrollment is underway and lasts through December 31. Any eligible Californian can sign up without needing to have a qualifying life event – for example, losing your job, recently getting married, or having a new child.

Published

3 years ago

September 12, 2021

Isabelle Price

Stethoscope on Bed; Photo courtesy of Hush Naidoo Jade Photography

The past 18 months have shown, more than ever before, the fragile, precious, and priceless nature of our health.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc on our economy, our ability to educate our children and our general wellbeing.

There is an important tool to help us stay safe and vibrant. That’s health insurance. With the pandemic far from over, having affordable, high-quality health coverage is more important than ever.

The economic stimulus package known as the American Rescue Plan (ARP), signed into law in March, is helping to lower health insurance premiums to levels never seen before.

Covered California, the agency that administers the Affordable Care Act in this state, has been working hard to get out the word about the new increase in the financial help available to ensure millions of Californians can get quality health insurance coverage.

Covered California estimates the new financial assistance available through the ARP can directly help more than 450,000 people in the Bay Area by significantly lowering their monthly premiums.

New data shows that an estimated 103,000 people in the Bay Area are uninsured and eligible for health insurance coverage through Covered California, with an additional 89,000 eligible for no-cost Medi-Cal. Under the ARP, most of those eligible for Covered California would be able to get a high-quality plan for as little as $1 per month, or a plan that offers additional benefits for less than $100 per month.

The new law is already helping about 280,000 people in the Bay Area currently enrolled through Covered California by lowering their premiums and making coverage more affordable than ever before. Covered California consumers statewide have already seen their net premiums decrease by an average of $190 per household per month.

Hush Naidoo Jade Photography

Affordable, accessible, high-quality healthcare is a fundamental human right. As chair of the Congressional Black Caucus during the drafting of the Affordable Care Act, I worked to ensure strong provisions that expand health care access, address health disparities and create incentives for people to live healthy lives.

While citizens and leaders in the greater Bay Area, including the 13^th Congressional district which I represent, reacted quickly to slow the spread of the virus, our communities have still been hit hard, especially communities of color.

With the help of vaccines and ARP, we are making positive steps forward. We can hug our grandchildren again. We can go to restaurants again. We are returning to school and to work.

But the pandemic is not over. As the Delta variant continues to spread, it is now just as important as ever that we continue to get vaccinated.

Last November, I spoke on the House floor emphasizing the need for COVID-19 testing and contact tracing, and the disproportionate impact the pandemic was having on Black, Brown, Latino, Asian and Indigenous people – communities that historically have been left behind in times of crisis.

We can’t allow that to happen again this time.

Vaccines are readily available, and they are proven safe and effective. Please don’t hesitate. Let’s not lose the ground we have worked so hard to gain.

Vaccinations and affordable health insurance are invaluable tools that can help us get back to normal. We must use them.

To find out how much financial assistance you can get and enroll for coverage, go to: https://www.coveredca.com/.

Congresswoman Barbara Lee represents the 13^th District in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The Oakland Post’s coverage of local news in Alameda County is supported by the Ethnic Media Sustainability Initiative, a program created by California Black Media and Ethnic Media Services to support community newspapers across California.

Isabelle Price

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Barbara Lee

Congresswoman Barbara Lee Reflects on Historic Moment Less Than One Week from Election Day

Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA-12) today released a piece on Medium reflecting on Vice President Kamala Harris’ historic presidential campaign 50 years after Lee worked on the presidential campaign of Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm.

Published

2 weeks ago

November 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Congresswoman Barbara Lee.

Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA-12) today released a piece on Medium reflecting on Vice President Kamala Harris’ historic presidential campaign 50 years after Lee worked on the presidential campaign of Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm:

“As Election Day approaches, I’m reflecting on a few dates and numbers that mean something to me.

Zero: the number of Black members in Congress 56 years ago. Next Congress, we hope to swear in over 60 members in the Congressional Black Caucus.

Three: The number of Black women to ever serve in the United States Senate since the first Congress in 1789.

Two: The number of Black women that will be elected to the Senate this year alone if we do our job.

1972: The first time a Black woman, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, ran for president in one of the major political parties of the United States.

Zero: the number of Black women to ever serve as president of the United States.

IF we do the work, we can change that with President Kamala Harris.

As I reflect on what would be Congresswoman Chisholm’s 100th birthday next month, I could not help but remember that my first official involvement in U.S. politics was working for her presidential campaign in 1972.

Over 50 years later, I have been involved in every single campaign since. Shirley was my mentor — she was a bold visionary, a progressive woman who understood that working together in coalitions was the only way to make life better for everyone, to build an equitable society and democracy that lived up to the creed of “liberty and justice for all.”

The historic moment we are in today is not lost on me. I have had the privilege to have known Vice President Kamala Harris for over three decades. She, after all, is a daughter of the East Bay. She, like Shirley, truly is a fighter for the people.

And I know she can move our country forward in a new way. As a member of her National Advisory Board, I have campaigned across our country to help take her message, her legacy of service, and her “to-do list,” as she says, to voters who were almost starting to feel hopeless, but are now feeling hopeful once again, captured by the politics joy and the bright possibilities brought upon by a possible Harris-Walz administration.

Recently, I visited churches in North Carolina with members of the Congressional Black Caucus. The chair of our CBC political action committee, Chairman Gregory Meeks from New York’s fifth district, eloquently and powerfully presented a vision of what Dr. Maya Angelou wrote in her famous poem, “And Still I Rise:” “I am the dream and the hope of the slave.”

Meeks remarked that on Jan. 20, 2025, we will observe the birthday of our drum major for justice, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

He also described that on Jan. 20, IF we do the work — if we knock on doors, if we make those phone calls, if we spread our message — standing on the podium at the U.S. Capitol will be the first Black speaker of the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries.

In the wings will be over 60 members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Holding Frederick Douglass’ Bible will be the first African American woman appointed to the highest court of the land, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

She will be swearing-in the first Black woman to serve as president, Kamala Harris, in front of the shining white dome of the United States Capitol, built by enslaved Black people.

In front of her and beyond, the tens of millions of Black men and women who voted for her. The world will witness the hope and the dreams of our ancestors ushering in a new way forward.

As I sat in front of the stage this week at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., as Vice President Harris delivered remarks with the Oval Office behind her, I could not help but feel that our country was ready for this historic moment.

We are not only voting for a Black woman as Commander in Chief of the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world. We are definitively stating that we will not allow the clocks of freedom and justice to be turned back.

We are voting for our ancestors’ hopes and dreams. We are voting for the generations that will come after us, long after we are gone. We are voting for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Let’s get this done.

Oakland Post

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Activism

Surge of Support for Vote ‘No’ on Recall of Mayor Sheng Thao

Prominent local political leaders have issued strong statements urging voters to oppose the recalls, including Rep. Barbara Lee, State Senator Nancy Skinner, Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson, and Sandré R. Swanson, a former member of the California State Assembly (see their statements elsewhere in this issue of the newspaper).

Published

1 month ago

October 15, 2024

Oakland Post

Mayor Sheng Thao spoke Sunday, Oct. 6 at a campaign rally to reject the billionaire-backed recall on the Nov. 5 ballot. Photo courtesy of Oaklanders Defending Democracy.

By Post Staff

Since its official launch on Sunday, Oct. 6, the campaign to reject the recall of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao has received a surge of support. Many local organizations with deep roots in Oakland and very prominent elected officials are getting the word out, saying Oakland is not for sale.

Oakland City Councilmember Carroll Fife also condemned the recalls. “The financial and morale cost of these recalls is more than our city can bear. In the face of a budget deficit, a $10-million-special election would be painful in more ways than one. Ten million (dollars) could go a long way to addressing some of the issues in Oakland people care about.”

Said William Fitzgerald, campaign spokesman of Oaklanders Defending Democracy, which opposes the mayor’s recall, “One rich guy in Piedmont thinks he could buy himself a mayor of Oakland. What we’re seeing this week is a tidal wave of support rejecting the premise that the ultra-wealthy can hijack the democratic process. The facts are clear: Mayor Sheng Thao has massively reduced crime in Oakland and is bringing business opportunities to the Town.”

Pastor Servant BK Woodson, a steering committee member of the “Respect Our Vote – No Recalls!” coalition, said, “It is entirely reasonable to fear the continuing accumulating of power into fewer and fewer hands. History is replete with examples of the despotism, destruction and harms that oligarchs, dictators and demigods bring into the lives of ordinary people.

“The privilege to struggle to make these United States of America a more perfect union has taken the form of this consequential election. In Alameda County we must reject the recalls and elect our forward-thinking and progressive candidates,” Pastor Woodson said.

Oakland Rising Action wrote on its website, “(The) recent recalls have been led by a small group of millionaires and conservatives, and their agenda is to undermine our democracy.”

The Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club wrote on its Facebook page, “Deny the Lies.”

“Crime increased during the pandemic, and Oakland and Alameda County were not spared. Both recalls have claimed otherwise and placed the blame on District Attorney Pamela Price and Mayor Sheng Thao, even while crime is on the decline,” the club wrote.

Other organizations opposing the recall of Thao include the Alameda County Democratic Party, SEIU 2021, Alameda Labor Council, Oakland Tenants Union, Nor Cal Carpenters, East Bay for Everyone, Local 21, Oakland Firefighters 55, eVolve California, National Union of Healthcare Workers, John George Democratic Club, Latine Young Democrats of the East Bay, APEN Action, Block by Block Organizing Network and East Bay Young Democrats.

Oakland Post

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Activism

Rep. Barbara Lee Hosts Roundtable on Public Safety, Congratulates AASEG on Oakland Coliseum Deal

Congresswoman Lee’s roundtable united community leaders across her district and strengthened relationships while fostering collaborative solutions to their common challenges. Attendees were city leaders from Alameda, Communities United Restorative Youth Justice (CURYJ), the Peralta Community College District, Kingmakers of Oakland (KOO), Live Free USA, and numerous Oakland community and nonprofit leaders.

Published

3 months ago

August 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA-12), left, and Jonathan Paul Jones, African American Sport & Entertainment Group (AASEG). Photo by Conway Jones.

By Post Staff

On Wednesday, Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA-12) hosted a transformative community roundtable at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center on Ninth street. The gathering brought together leaders from various sectors to unite around a shared mission: to address public safety, gun violence prevention, and social justice in the East Bay.

By connecting leaders from across the East Bay, the roundtable facilitated meaningful dialogue on combating crime and promoting public safety. The event underscored a collective commitment to addressing violence and fostering social justice in the region. The event was hosted by Francis Lan, president of the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce (OCCC) and Carl Chan, president of Oakland Chinatown Chamber Foundation.

After the roundtable, Congresswoman Lee set up some time to talk to Jonathan Paul Jones from AASEG to congratulate them on the Coliseum deal and express her excitement saying “It’s a major deal and I am excited to see African Americans leading this deal. It’s been long overdue!”

The AASEG Coliseum purchase and development initiative has garnered support from leaders including OCCC and has inspired optimism about the potential for homegrown entrepreneurs and businesspeople to create opportunities and restore the community.

As the momentum for change builds, Oakland stands on the brink of a new era of community empowerment and revitalization. The city’s leaders and citizens are coming together, exemplified by initiatives like Congresswoman Lee’s roundtable and the efforts of AASEG.

It’s time for Oakland to rise above its challenges, embrace its potential, and become a beacon of hope and progress. With unity and determination, Oakland can transform its future and inspire communities everywhere.