Health Care Reform TODAY!

Today, September 23, marks the start of the implementation of the Affordable Health Care Act. Six months ago, history was made as President Obama signed into action a step towards affordable, universal health care in the United States. This is the first of many installments that will promote general health welfare across the United States, helping to insure more people, to give people the safety net they need, and the opportunity to be advocates for themselves.

The first installment of the Affordable Health Care Act, starting today, will allow young people to remain on their parents’ insurance until age 26. It also prohibits employer plans from withholding health care from children under 18 with pre-existing conditions. Further, insurance companies will no longer be allowed to drop people when they get sick. It delineates that there will no longer be lifetime limits on coverage (though doesn’t, at this time, prevent annual limits), and new plans must offer free preventive care. Lastly, patients with new plans starting after 9/23 will be able to appeal decisions made by the health plan to a third party, giving patients more of a voice for themselves and advocating for their own well-being.

The hope is that by expanding who will be covered and putting health care into the hands of those who need it, we will be moving towards a nation where everyone will be covered... eventually. It seems as if the full effects of the plan will not be realized until 2014, but the benefits to those who are currently uninsured and faced with mountains of bills are seeing glimmers of hope with the advent of this benchmark in Obama’s presidency.

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

Shakespeare's musings in Romeo and Juliet offer quite a point of interest for those choosing a name for a child, a car, a pet, or, say, a supportive housing program. While we fully recognize that simply a name for the house will alter the outcome of the mothers in the program, as everything else owned by St. Francis Inn Ministries is named, we felt compelled to follow suit. Most of our houses are named after people (Juniper House, Mary House, Clare House, Jean Donovan House, etc), but we wanted to name the house after someone or something that could be accessible to the mothers living in the house. And thus, we've settled on St. Margaret House, after St. Margaret of Cortona.
We look to St. Margaret of Cortona as an example of integrity, conversion, hope and strength of character. When Margaret was just seventeen, she left her parents to follow a man who promised love and security. For ten years, she lived, unmarried, with the man who was one day mysteriously murdered, leaving her to raise their son alone.
After being abandoned and forced to raise her child alone, Margaret returned to the home of her father and stepmother, only to be rejected by her stepmother, forcing Margaret to seek refuge with the Franciscans in Cortona. It was here that Margaret began a life of penance, simplicity, and devotion to life in servitude of God.
St. Margaret of Cortona underwent a significant conversion experience from a life in pursuit of earthly things to a soul centered on the Divine. Her radical shift from self-indulgence to selfless love and commitment to something greater not only gives us hope for ourselves, but for the lives of those who will reside in St. Margaret House.
St. Margaret is the patron saint of single mothers, as well as many other patronages. But for many of the single mothers that will live here, their character imbued with the desire to pursue a life of virtue, with little guidance or conviction to follow through, is common. We hope that by looking to St. Margaret of Cortona, the women that participate in this supportive housing program will harness her strength and spirit to seek integrity, conversion, and hope within themselves and their families.