The morning after an assembly in which hundreds of San Fernando Valley leaders of One LA leveraged commitments from District 3 candidates to ensure sufficient funding for the 'My Health LA' program, the LA County Board of Supervisors voted to invest $6 Million in additional dollars for the program.

One LA estimates that the added funding will expand coverage by 35 to 40 thousand individuals. This victory comes months after the organization identified millions of County dollars that could be used to cover more uninsured people, including undocumented County residents.

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Hundreds of One LA-IAF leaders convened at Mary Immaculate Catholic Church in Pacoima with candidates for Los �ngeles County Supervisor District 3, Sheila Kuehl and Bobby Shriver. Leaders leveraged commitments from both to:

• Increase funding for My Health LA if the current funding stream falls short of covering all those eligible;

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With multi-colored packets in hand and plans for five subsequent enrollment workshops calendared, Dallas Area Interfaith leaders paused to welcome President Obama at Temple Emanu-El Wednesday evening. Obama thanked those gathered saying "there's no state that actually needs this more than Texas."

Months prior to the Presidential visit, institutional leaders of Dallas Area Interfaith raised $20,000 to produce 100,000 copies of a multi-colored, bilingual booklet designed to educate uninsured residents about how the Affordable Care Act works. Civic academies, held in church sanctuaries and school cafeterias, have so far reached 1,600 North Texas residents, sometimes as many as 200 at a time. Leaders are learning that many people require basic education about how health insurance works with questions like "what is a deductible?" commonly raised.

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President Obama plans to meet with Dallas Area Interfaith at Temple Emanu-El, where hundreds of institutional leaders gathered last month to launch their institutional enrollment outreach strategy. Chair of the DAI Healthcare Committee Gwen Lummus explained to the Dallas Morning News that "this area had the highest percentage of uninsured in the whole country. That's one of the reasons we've been working on this."

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Sheila Anderson, a leader with Allied Communities of Tarrant (ACT) in Fort Worth, is one of more than one million in Texas living life in healthcare limbo. People like Sheila, who make too much to qualify for government assistance, but not enough to qualify for subsidies in the Marketplace (reserved for those making at least 138% of the federal poverty level) will not be helped since Texas did not expand Medicaid. That is why she, with others of ACT and Dallas Area Interfaith, rallied at the Capitol earlier this year and are fighting still for a 'Texas Solution,' and idea gaining support from local Chambers of Commerce.

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Three hundred leaders from Dallas Area Interfaith assembled at Temple Emmanu-El in North Dallas to kick off an affordable care campaign aimed at explaining the federal healthcare exchange. Marjorie Petty, Region 6 Director of US Health & Human Services, praised DAI, asserting they "have done an amazing amount of work in just six weeks" and is "a model for others around the country."

With the aid of multi-colored booklets that clearly lay out how uninsured individuals can participate in the federal exchange, which the healthcare action team of DAI produced, leaders hope to reach hundreds of thousands of uninsured.

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Since February, One LA has enrolled over 3,000 eligible for Medicaid expansion through its mobile enrollment clinics held in local congregations. In the process, they discovered thousands of low wage taxpayers left out of Obamacare due to their immigration status. Hundreds of One LA leaders assembled mid-October to call on veteran County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky to create and fund a County-based health coverage program for 1 million undocumented residents. The Supervisor agreed to meet with One LA within 30 days to begin discussion of the plan.

Leaders also testified to the challenges experienced when trying to enroll people on Covered California, the state based health exchange that opened October 1. A board member and staff member of Covered California agreed to meet with One LA before the end of the year to discuss changes needed in the health exchanges outreach strategy.

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Valley Interfaith's healthcare summit in Edinburgh drew 220 leaders from member congregations and schools. The meeting was held in collaboration with three Hidalgo County commissioners and State Representative Sergio Munoz. Hidalgo County Judge Ramon Garcia declared, "I stand with Valley Interfaith in calling for a coordination meeting...to discuss tangible strategies for educating our uninsured population about how they can access the federal marketplace." Leaders are planning a November "'check up' on the new marketplace in the Rio Grande Valley,' Valley Interfaith leader Eddie Anaya told the Guardian.

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With about 100,000 Bexar County residents eligible to get healthcare insurance through the exchange, leaders from COPS/Metro Alliance and University Health System brought together close to 100 community stakeholders to evaluate ACA implementation readiness and identify concerns. The first enrollment period for the subsidized insurance runs from Oct. 1, 2013 to March 31, 2014. Leaders aim to develop a comprehensive plan to educate San Antonio area residents on the Insurance Marketplace provision.

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Three and a half years ago, leaders of The Border Organization pressured the Val Verde Regional Medical Center board to contract with a reputable health management system in response to deteriorating hospital services and several million dollars of public debt. The Board of Val Verde eventually chose Methodist Healthcare System (MHS), and the hospital is currently millions of dollars in the black.

However, the Board recently held a secret election to vote in a new CEO, nullifying the managing contract with MHS and sparking public concern about the possibility of corruption:

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