Access to healthcare is good for people, communities, and the economy at large. What would Alabama and the South look like if the healthcare coverage gap closed? What will it take to achieve this significant policy shift at the state level? On November 6, 2023, we gathered in Birmingham, Alabama to have a lunchtime discussion on the benefits of and barriers to closing the health insurance coverage gap in Alabama.

Panelists:

Khalilah Brown, MD
Vice President of Medical Affairs and Patient Advocacy at Southern Research

Kenneth King
Board Member at Alabama Arise

Jane Adams
Government Relations Director at American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network

We are pleased that visual artist, Jenny Fine, joined the program and exhibited her work.

Jenny Fine (b. 1981, Enterprise, AL) is a visual artist and art educator living and working in Alabama. Based in the photographic form, Fine’s practice employs time as the primary material in her exploration of personal and cultural memory, identity, and our ever-shifting relationship to the photograph.

“Closing the healthcare coverage gap is important to me because every human body deserves healthcare, even those that society deems as undeserving. Cancer, heart attacks, and disease do not discriminate. Then, how can the healthcare system?” -Jenny Fine””

We gathered as community members, nonprofit leaders, business owners, policymakers, and artists around food and creative expression for a participatory discussion on the impacts of closing the health insurance coverage gap on people and the health system overall. Ultimately, we hope to understand the economic and practical impacts of expanding health coverage.