Property Tax Homestead Exemption Passed for Disabled Vets

A Property Tax Homestead Exemption is now available for disabled veterans in North Carolina. The act passed during the last session of the North Carolina General Assembly allows for an exemption from tax on the first $45,000 in value of an appraised residence owned and operated by an eligible veteran. Eligible veterans are defined as those who are honorably discharged and permanently and totally disabled by a service disability. Proof of disability through a letter or other documentation from the United States Government of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs is required for application. Documentation of eligibility can also be obtained through your regional Veterans Affairs office-simply request a letter of certification of disability. To apply for the homestead exemption, request a form through your county’s tax department.

To view the bill, please click here

NC Chapters Endorse Affordable Healthcare Campaigns

The North Carolina chapters of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society have signed on to endorse the Health Care for All Campaign and Guaranteed Affordable Choice plan. The Guaranteed Affordable Choice plan was created by members of the NC Justice Center’s Health Access Coalition in an effort to ensure affordable, quality health coverage for all North Carolinians. It hopes to follow six steps in order to provide this achieve this goal:

1. Cover every child and make prevention a priority,
2. Expand public coverage for lower-income parents and pregnant women,
3. Make health insurance less expensive for small businesses and their employees,
4. Guarantee affordable choice for everyone,
5. Control health care costs,
6. Fairly finance reform.

The Health Care for All Campaign aspires to build support for measures to address racial and ethnic disparities in health care access, coverage, and quality of care. It hopes to mobilize for affordable and quality health care for all by the year 2010.
To learn more about the Health Care for All Campaign visit here
To learn more about the Guaranteed Affordable Choice plan, please click here

NC Medical Board Makes Malpractice Payments Available on Web

The North Carolina Medical Board is working out the details of its decision to post medical malpractice information on its website. State legislature made the decision to post this information in October of 2007, and in recent months there has been great debate over the specific details that the Medical Board will post. While many citizens are advocating for all malpractice suits in the past seven years to be posted, the Board has decided to only post malpractice payments that occurred after October 2007, and then only those that are over twenty five thousand dollars- a threshold amount that can trigger an increase in malpractice insurance premiums for doctors. The timeframe for posting malpractice awards has been the biggest issue in this decision, with many doctors arguing that malpractice payments are often made with secrecy clauses, and that posting these payments on the web will violate them. The majority of doctors wish for a minimal amount of information to be posted for fear that it may be misinterpreted, but a poll recently showed that eighty one percent of the public support full disclosure of these payments. Over twenty states in the U.S. already post medical malpractice payments on the internet, and North Carolina will begin making this information available in the fall of 2009.

A Majority of Americans with Disabilities Feel Overlooked by Political Candidates

Ninety one percent of people with disabilities believe they receive less attention from presidential candidates than do other minorities, reports a poll conducted by Disaboom, an online community for people with disabilities. The population of Americans with disabilities consists of about 54 million people, easily a large enough number to impact the popular vote. With the recent conventions and upcoming debates, Americans with disabilities are looking for candidates to specifically identify and discuss topics that affect them. However, the majority of people with disabilities have expressed the feeling of being overlooked by presidential candidates and often by the political system in general. According to Disaboom, a significant portion of the entire American population, twenty five percent, agrees with this claim that presidential candidates do not give enough attention to the disabled minority. This is not, however, due to a lack of interest on the side of the citizens, as research has shown that the disabled community is eager to have its voice heard on topics such as healthcare, veteran’s issues, and unemployment. For more information on this study and on other political issues of interest to people with disabilities, please view the full article at http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/marketwire/0428479.htm and visit Disaboom’s political blog at http://www.disaboom.com/disabledpolitico/