Miami Dade College Leads with Initiative to Reach Students and Engage Community

Joe Pena is being honored as an Affordable Care Act Champion of Change.

Miami Dade College (MDC) is the higher education institution with the largest campus-based enrollment in the United States, serving more than 165,000 students. Under the leadership of its president, Dr. Eduardo J. Padron, the institution has been elevated to national prominence for its innovation, programs of excellence, and service to the community.

President Padron designated me to coordinate a college-wide initiative to educate students, faculty, and the local community about their options under the Affordable Care Act. I was incredibly motivated to work on this project. Early on, we formed a partnership with Get Covered America, which sparked local community organizations and volunteers to assist with our efforts. We organized a series of successful educational outreach events, including workshops on multiple campuses. These events provided key information and enrollment assistance to all with an interest in signing up for health insurance.

The informational workshops were held on Saturdays and weeknights in the computer courtyards of four of our campuses stretching across all of Miami-Dade County. Holding these workshops in our computer courtyards allowed the trained assisters to educate the participants, explain the enrollment process, and answer questions directly.

Although I spearheaded this initiative, it came together as a result of the contributions of many in our institution.  For Miami Dade College, this was an “all hands on deck” project focused on our students and local community. From our College and campus leadership to our administrators to our computer technicians and support staff, we were all motivated to pitch in, educating and assisting others about their health care options. The College District Office of Communications played a key role in announcing our outreach activities, generating media attention, and encouraging all to visit the HealthCare.gov website.

In the next enrollment period, we plan to once again partner with Get Covered America and the other community organizations to run educational workshops and to engage our communications network. In addition, we are organizing “office hours” on our campuses, allowing students and community members to set up individual enrollment assistance appointments with the trained assisters from the community organizations.

This MDC initiative is credited with having made a significant impact, improving the access to health care for thousands of residents in Miami-Dade County and throughout South Florida. I am proud to have been a part of this effort and to have been designated a “Champion for Change”.

Joe Pena is the Director of Federal Relations for Miami Dade College.

You Too Can Make a Difference

Pat Halpin-Murphy is being honored as an Affordable Care Act Champion of Change.

I am truly grateful to have been selected as a White House Champion of Change. I can’t tell you how much it means to me to be honored with this award. 

As the President and Founder of the Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition (PBCC), I lead a non-profit organization dedicated to finding a cure for breast cancer now so that our daughters won’t have to. I’m a breast cancer survivor, and twenty-five years ago when I was diagnosed I found that there wasn’t an organization in Pennsylvania dedicated to supporting women and families facing breast cancer. I founded the PBCC in 1993 to fill this void. In our twenty-year history, the PBCC has paved the way for countless legislative victories that support women and families across the state.

The best part of my work is talking to women about their experience with breast cancer and finding out what we can do to help meet their needs. For instance, we learned that many women were diagnosed with breast cancer in late stages because they have dense breast tissue. Upon learning this, we didn’t just sit by and wait for something to be done. Rather, we sprang into action and convinced Pennsylvania State Senator Bob Mensch to introduce legislation to help women with dense breast tissue receive improved information and screening so that they could be diagnosed at an earlier stage.

I believe that we all have the capacity to make a difference in our communities. Former U.S. Senator Harris Wofford made a tremendous impression on me as a leader. He recognized that each person has so much to contribute if only given the opportunity. He listened to people’s ideas and encouraged them to make those ideas become realities. Senator Wofford believed that everyone could contribute to their community. I truly believe that we can all make a difference. That’s the best part of this work. I’ve come to realize that, by simply standing up and taking action, we can all be “Champions of Change.”

Pat Halpin-Murphy is the President and Founder of the PA Breast Cancer Coalition. 

Dedicating His Life So Others Could Live Their Own

Andrew Cray is being honored posthumously as an Affordable Care Act Champion of Change.

Andrew Cray dedicated his life to making sure others could live their own.  

Every day, Andrew fought tirelessly for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, or LGBT, Americans to be treated with dignity and fairness. His work touched so many lives in so many ways, from working to secure protections for LGBT homeless youth to collaborating with the Obama Administration to implement the Supreme Court’s marriage equality rulings. At the center of his work, however, was his belief that the foundation of equality rests on the ability of all Americans to access comprehensive, affordable, and inclusive health care.  

Andrew was just 28 years old when cancer tragically took his life this past August, but his passion for equity in and access to health insurance existed long before his diagnosis. As a transgender man, Andrew knew the challenges and the needs of the LGBT community personally and was all too familiar with the common occurrence of transgender people being denied insurance simply because of their gender identity, as well as with the startling statistics. According to a recent Center for American Progress report, one in three LGBT people with incomes at or below 4 times the federal poverty line lacked insurance, and 72% of gay, lesbian, and bisexual people reported experiencing discrimination when attempting to find coverage through their employer for a same-sex partner. The eternal optimist that he was, Andrew believed that, with the right reforms and the improvements, those numbers could change.

Like many LGBT Americans, Andrew saw the Affordable Care Act as a vehicle for change and an opportunity to open up life-saving medical care to a community too often systemically and financially excluded. After passage, he worked with the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services to end discrimination against LGBT people by health insurance companies. He collaborated with the federal government and state governments to ensure accurate data collection on sexual orientation and gender identity, which will serve as the foundation of future LGBT health advocacy. Andrew also worked with various partners to ensure that many of the new insurance options were inclusive of same-sex couples and transgender Americans.

As important as these reforms are, he also knew that, for the law to work, people needed to be educated and enrolled, which is why he, along with colleagues at the Center for American Progress, Sellers Dorsey, and the Federal Agencies Project, co-founded Out2Enroll. Over the last year, Out2Enroll has helped educate and connect countless LGBT Americans with their new coverage options under the Affordable Care Act. 

All of this work took on a new meaning for Andrew when, in September 2013, he was diagnosed with cancer. Throughout his treatment, he continued his legal advocacy and outreach work but also decided to utilize his personal story to convince young Americans, including young LGBT Americans, to enroll in health insurance. In an op-ed in The Advocate, Andrew wrote, “Our LGBT community is resilient and strong, and particularly for those of us who are young and have our entire lives in front of us, it may feel like we are invincible. I’ve learned the hard way that I’m not.”

Several months later, this past July, Andrew found out that his cancer had returned and that it was terminal. As his partner, and soon to be wife, I sat with Andrew as we discussed what he wanted to do with the time he had left. He said he wanted to continue his life’s work: fighting to ensure that all Americans, including LGBT Americans, can access life-saving medical care.

One month later, Andrew passed away far too quickly and far too young, but the benefits of his work live on. As he wrote in The Advocate last March, “Cancer has taken a lot from me physically and emotionally. But it hasn’t taken away my voice…I want to make sure other young LGBT people understand why getting covered is so important. I hope that my community will listen when I say — please, take care of yourselves. Be out, be healthy, and get covered."

Sarah McBride is the Special Assistant for LGBT Progress at the Center for American Progress and authored this blog post on behalf of Andrew Cray. Andrew Cray was a policy analyst at the Center for American Progress. He was her husband and colleague.