Tag: Jacob Flowers

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Majority of Uninsured Tennesseans Live in Shelby County

The uninsured rate for health coverage in Shelby County is 14 percent, which is only down four percent since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) launched in 2013.

Additionally, Shelby County accounts for the highest percentage — 14.5 percent — of uninsured residents in the state. And most of the county residents without health coverage are either Hispanic (20 percent), African American (18 percent), or young people ages 18 to 34 (21 percent). That’s according to new data from Enroll America, a national, nonpartisan nonprofit group that aims to get uninsured people signed up for ACA health plans.

Open enrollment for ACA coverage is underway now through January 31st, but Enroll America’s Tennessee State Director Jacob Flowers says those who want to start 2016 with coverage must sign up for a plan by December 15th. For assistance finding a plan, people can contact the Enroll America hotline at 844-644-5443 or go to GetCoveredTenn.org. — Bianca Phillips

Jacob Flowers

Flyer: Shelby County’s uninsured rate hasn’t dropped much. Were you surprised by that?

Flowers: The rate in Shelby County is on par with what we’ve seen across the state with the lack of Medicaid expansion. And with such a high uninsured rate to begin with, it’s actually pretty good. There is a lot still to be done, but we’ve been really proud of what people have been able to do here in Shelby County.

Why the disparity among young people, Latinos, and African Americans?

Those populations are the hardest to reach, each with their own separate set of circumstances. We’ve gone through two open-enrollment cycles now, and the outreach community has been very effective at getting the general word out to the broader community, which has resulted in what you would call the lowest-hanging fruit being enrolled first.

What role has Tennessee’s failure to expand Medicaid had on our uninsured rate?

When we hold enrollment events, we have a large number of people who walk in and are not eligible for coverage. And that’s tough to explain. These folks are the working poor, and they don’t understand why their friends and family members are eligible for coverage and they are not. It’s a tough issue to deal with here in the state.

Who isn’t eligible for ACA coverage?

There are people who fall completely below the federal poverty level, and they’re eligible for Medicaid, which is TennCare in our state. At the other end of the scale, you have people who just make enough money for a plan out-of-pocket. And more than 83 percent of Tennesseans receive a federal income tax credit, which makes coverage affordable for them.

But in the middle are people who don’t make enough money to qualify for federal tax credits, but make too much money to qualify for Medicaid. So they’re left in what we call the coverage gap. And the lack of Medicaid expansion means they’re not eligible for Medicaid or tax credits. So they just can’t afford coverage.

How many people here are in that gap?

The quotes are between 400,000 and 480,000 across the state; Shelby County has the largest percentage of people in the Medicaid gap. They estimate that’s between 60,000 and 75,000 people in Shelby County.

Is there any element of political protest in the lack of insurance? Are some people refusing to sign up because they’re anti-Obamacare?

It’s a politically divisive issue. But we find it interesting that once you take the political divisiveness out of it and focus on the benefits that it has for individuals and the broader community, those political walls seem to come down.

I’ve heard quotes from our staff out in East Tennessee where somebody will come into an event and they’ll say, “I sure am against that Obamacare, but that coverage I got through the Affordable Care Act sure is great.” There’s so much rhetoric out there.

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A Roast for Jacob Flowers

Somehow former Mid-South Peace & Justice Center (MPJC) Executive Director Jacob Flowers managed to make a decade-long, full-time career out of being a hippie.

And now that he’s moved on to another — ahem, hippie — job pushing affordable health-care sign-ups at Enroll America, those who have worked with Flowers through the local social justice movement will have a chance to poke a little fun at Flowers at “Roast & Toast Jacob Flowers” on Thursday, June 26th, at the National Civil Rights Museum.

MPJC friend and wage-theft crusader Kyle Kordsmeier will M.C. the event. The list of roasters includes Shelby County Commissioner Steve Mulroy, AFSMCE director Gail Tyree, Manna House’s Pete Gathje, Pezz punk rocker Ceylon Mooney, First Congo Church’s Julia Hicks, former MPJC Board Chair Emily Fulmer, and Flowers’ successor as MPJC director, Brad Watkins. Flowers’ family will finish out the roast with jokes from his mother Sandy Furrh and his wife Allison Glass.

Before the roast, cocktails will be served as folk-jazz-pop trio Sibella performs. After the roast is a performance by Memphis United member and up-and-coming local rapper Knowledge Nick. Tickets are $10 to reflect Flowers’ decade with the organization.

“I think it’s pretty gracious that Jacob is still raising money in support of the work this organization does, even after he departs,” Watkins says. “And I think there are a lot of people out there who would be jumping at the opportunity to do a roast on Jacob.”

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Jacob Flowers Reflects on His Time at the Mid-South Peace & Justice Center

Jacob Flowers

After 10 years, Flowers is leaving his post of executive director.

The Mid-South Peace & Justice Center has been a part of Jacob Flowers’ life for as long as he can remember.

Flowers, who leaves his executive director post at the end of the month, oversaw the social justice nonprofit for 10 years. But Flowers’ parents volunteered with the Peace & Justice Center in the ’80s, when he just a kid. He remembers his mom’s work on the Central American Task Force and his dad helping out with Nuclear Freeze Movement protests.

Flowers interned at the center in high school and, after college, began working for the organization full-time. As executive director, he was responsible for helping bring the struggling center into a more financially stable position. And he oversaw many campaigns aimed at everything from protesting the Iraq War to fighting for better local homeless services to launching community gardens.

At the end of the month, he’s leaving the position to take on a new role as the Tennessee State Director for Enroll America, a national organization with a focus on boosting the numbers of people enrolled in affordable health care.

— Bianca Phillips

Flyer: Did you get to witness your parents doing peace work?

Flowers: My mom was involved with work around the Central American Crisis and the Sanctuary Movement, which was kin to an underground railroad for the U.S.-sponsored violence in Central America. Her leg was to pick people [from Central America] up from Brownsville and bring them to Memphis. I didn’t get to go with her, but I grew up knowing a lot of these families and a lot of these kids. We had Spanish lessons at one family’s house.

I remember seeing my father [who was involved in the Nuclear Freeze Movement] arrested for sitting on the train tracks by Channel 3 and blocking a train carrying nuclear weapons from going through our city. Watching two police officers carry him off is an early memory.

How did you end up as the executive director?

I ended up interning here in 2001. I helped start the Orange Mound Community Garden that summer. When I got out of college, I spent time living in Western Massachusetts and looking for a job where I could do this kind of work professionally. Either I could take a baseline level organizing position [somewhere else] or I could go home and help rebuild the Peace & Justice Center, which at the time, in 2003 to 2004, was in a pretty bad financial spot. We didn’t have a paid staff at the time. The board was managing all the programs.

Under your leadership, what have you been the most proud of?

The opportunity that we had to refocus the organization around critical local issues, in addition to focusing on national and international-level issues, is what I treasure the most about my time here — all of those local campaigns that weren’t a part of the political discourse at the time, like homelessness, that we made into central issues that we are focusing on in our city.

What will you miss the most?

Oh man, I’m gonna miss lots of stuff. I’ll miss the great leaders and staff that I have had the privilege to work with. But at the same time, it’s been a real privilege to get paid to do this kind of work. I’m giving up that privilege, but I’ll still be heavily involved as a community member.

What’s next for the Peace & Justice Center?

Part of having a strong, sustainable, people-led organization is letting leadership cycle, so we’re moving up some of our internal leaders. For right now, we can announce that Brad Watkins will be the executive director beginning June 1st.

And you have turned your leaving into a fundraiser, right?

One of the last things I’m doing is trying to raise money for the organization. We’ve launched a 10 for 10 campaign. For my 10 years of service, I’m trying to raise $10,000 to move us strongly through the end of the year. Anyone can donate at midsouthpeace.org/tenforten