APANO Community Town Halls: A Place to Tell Our Stories

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Jean Yamamoto, campaign team member and APANO board member.[/caption]

by Jean Yamamoto
Our Families, Our Health campaign team member and APANO board member

There's a broad range of how Asian and Pacific Islanders experience healthcare, wellness, and access to health services. I am one of the lucky ones to have been born into a middle class family in Hawaii where we had access to culturally sensitive care and continuous health insurance through my father's job. The unfortunate reality though, is that health insurance that’s affordable and comprehensive is still out of reach for many in our communities. While the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion helped many more get coverage, people still find themselves facing unaffordable premiums and others are categorically excluded. In Oregon, 383,000 individuals remain uninsured.

Our Families, Our Health, APANO's health equity campaign, is working to close those gaps, in particular for COFA residents (Compact of Free Association), Legal Permanent Residents facing the five year bar from Medicaid coverage, and low income residents whose income does not qualify them for Medicaid insurance. If you struggle with obtaining affordable, quality health insurance we want to hear from you. If you have health insurance but want to help our campaign for this basic human right, we also want to hear from you. Take our PLEDGE TODAY to show your support for affordable, accessible healthcare for all Oregonians.

APANO is hosting three town halls in Portland, Salem, and Eugene in November.* Please join the Our Families, Our Health campaign to find out more on how we can work together to bring health equity for all. Please go to www.apano.org for more information, or contact kathy@apano.org.



RSVP for Portland Town Hall: November 10th

RSVP for Eugene Town Hall: November 12th

RSVP for Salem Town Hall: November 17th

*Town Halls are from 6-8pm with dinner provided. Free cost to attend.