The Rev. Michael Minor, pastor of Oak Hill Missionary Baptist Church in Hernando, Miss., started encouraging his community to be healthy when he banned friend chicken at pot-luck dinners and installed a walking track around the church. Now he's volunteered for a much more daunting undertaking: trying to get "the state's nearly 275,000 uninsured people to sign up for health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act," Julie Steenhuysen reports for Reuters.
When Minor became Oak Hill's pastor in 1996, he found that many in the community were obese, and people were dying young as a result. Since he took action, people have become healthier. "You can see the difference," Minor told Steenhuysen. "People are much better sized, way better. And once they get it off, they want to keep it off."
Minor and his church are one of two organizations that received a federal "navigator" grant challenge with the task of helping people sign up for coverage under Obamacare. "That man is essentially heading up outreach enrollment of the ACA for Mississippi. It's staggering," Roy Mitchell, executive director of the Mississippi Health Advocacy Program, told Steenhuysen.
People like Minor will be key in determining whether the law will succeed or fail, Steenhuysen writes, citing a 2012 study about the health of the states revealed that Mississippi is tied for last with Louisiana and suffers from high rates of obesity and diabetes. Minor said, "I'm a firm believer that people are limited because someone tells them they are limited. I tell my members we can do whatever we want to do. Let's just go for it."
Republican-led Mississippi has one of the governments most opposed to Obamacare. It refused federal funds for an expansion of the Medicaid program for the poor, and it was left to use the faulty federal exchange when Washington rejected its application for a state-based exchange, Steenhuysen reports.
When Minor became Oak Hill's pastor in 1996, he found that many in the community were obese, and people were dying young as a result. Since he took action, people have become healthier. "You can see the difference," Minor told Steenhuysen. "People are much better sized, way better. And once they get it off, they want to keep it off."
Minor and his church are one of two organizations that received a federal "navigator" grant challenge with the task of helping people sign up for coverage under Obamacare. "That man is essentially heading up outreach enrollment of the ACA for Mississippi. It's staggering," Roy Mitchell, executive director of the Mississippi Health Advocacy Program, told Steenhuysen.
People like Minor will be key in determining whether the law will succeed or fail, Steenhuysen writes, citing a 2012 study about the health of the states revealed that Mississippi is tied for last with Louisiana and suffers from high rates of obesity and diabetes. Minor said, "I'm a firm believer that people are limited because someone tells them they are limited. I tell my members we can do whatever we want to do. Let's just go for it."
Republican-led Mississippi has one of the governments most opposed to Obamacare. It refused federal funds for an expansion of the Medicaid program for the poor, and it was left to use the faulty federal exchange when Washington rejected its application for a state-based exchange, Steenhuysen reports.
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