So, I am a person of colour my family’s coffee table always had jet, essence and all the usual magazines made for us and purchased delivered by mail… now they online.. ha. I definitely loved reading them,  absorbed the information and admit that there have been times in my life when I put  some ( poc ) magazines in time out or just stopped reading them for a long while.

However, in 2009 a great couple was being featured by other magazines, but Essence seemed to have the best and entertaining write-up on Obama’s family, and have been reading it ever since. I even went out of my way to score a free 1yr subscription by racking up some reward points but today … ah. Today, I received the Feb issue which is devoted to Black History Month with a tribute to Mandela and the cover was given to Steve Harvey … great! love him and his family.

Yet, as I thumbed through the magazine, an article in the hot topics section popped out at me.  The Forgotten: Black, Female, and Uninsured with a heartbreaking graphic of a woman and a little girl looking worried. I had to read more, but something was missing as I read the intro. It stated as many as 8 million Americans; Single working Black women have discovered they are ineligible to participate in the ACA program. If that wasn’t bad enough, retirees and Nursing Assistants were not only struggling to survive but might not get the health care they need. Ok, I started to get mad at the issue mad that these women were turned away …but stopped. I know women can get ACA , we are what I call the demographic for the ACA program, what the heck is missing from this, then there it was. Apparently, all of these women live in the south where 25 states refused Medicaid lest we talk about Obamacare, while many other states are discouraging and making it tough for their constituents to talk to navigators to get Affordable Care …or Obamacare.

The ACA specifically, among other things, eliminates discrimination and labeling a woman as a pre-existing condition… which women are considered because we can have children.  Anyway, suffice it to say I felt slightly peeved the article seemed somewhat misleading, though it had stories about what obstacles women were facing and was reported in great detail as some readers could relate and learn what they might need to do. Yet, for someone who actually knows about the ACA, it was tough reading how their so-called Public Servants have stood in the way of women who need health care now.  The powers that be have done a great job at putting these women and 8 million other lives at risk from diseases and illnesses  …. Why?

The article left me with a sick feeling because it gave the reader a great idea as to how the ACA is being treated in the South. It takes us inside the lives of these women who are in need, it also left me feeling like by the end of the article they still didn’t know how ACA worked or have answers they needed about how and where to sign up for ACA or if they were eventually nudged into the right direction by some helpful soul.  The article even had comments from a health care official who said the govt marketplace is available and that seems to be ignored.  Ultimately, I was somewhat disappointed in the article; it was an opportunity to find the resources for the women who probably could tell their friends and so on …