Affordable healthcare and groceries are what the members of Alabama Arise feel residents of Alabama need most.

The member-driven organization held its annual meeting last week to set priorities for the upcoming legislative year. Alabama Arise is a state-wide organization whose focus is on improving public policy in Alabama.

Many of those policies, organizers say, are the cause of poverty in the state and can be fixed through thoughtful and proactive legislation.

"The main causes of poverty in Alabama are systemic, not individual. That's why we advocate to expand Medicaid, end the state grocery tax, fund public transportation and enact other public policies that would break down systemic barriers and empower everyone in our state to reach their potential," said Chris Sanders, communications director for Alabama Arise. "These policies would expand opportunity and build a better, healthier Alabama now and for generations to come."

Last year the organization led the fight to rid residents of the grocery tax burden. Alabama is one of only three states across the nation that taxes groceries.

Four different legislators introduced bills in the last session to end the tax and replace its revenue for the education trust fund budget, an amount of nearly $452 million. None of the bills were brought to a vote. The issue remains one of the top goals for Alabama Arise in 2023.

The other target for the 400 plus members is the expansion of Medicaid in the state. Alabama is one of 12 states that has not expanded the program to cover adults with low incomes.

Supporters of Medicaid expansion say the move would provide health coverage for more than 220,000 people across Alabama who earn too much to qualify for the state's current Medicaid program and too little to afford private medical insurance. An expansion would also allow roughly 120,000 people across Alabama to move to a less costly health care plan.

Alabama's current Medicaid income limit sits at 18% of the federal poverty level, meaning a family of three with an income of $5,000 a year makes too much to qualify for Medicaid coverage.

Many of these families live without any insurance, and therefore, without any preventive or often emergency medical care, Sanders said.

"Medicaid saves lives, and it helps support hospitals and clinics that serve every Alabamian," he said. "No one should have to wonder if they can afford to get the health care they need to survive and thrive, but that's the unfortunate reality for hundreds of thousands of Alabamians who are caught in our state's health coverage gap.

"One essential step toward a healthier future for Alabama is to ensure everyone can afford the health care they need. Arise members believe Medicaid expansion is a policy path to that destination, and research provides strong support for that position," Sanders said.

The other items Alabama Arise members placed at the top of the list for 2023 are:

• Adequate budgets for human services like education, health care and childcare, including Medicaid expansion to make health coverage affordable for all Alabamians.
• Tax reform, including untaxing groceries and capping the state's upside-down deduction for federal income taxes, which overwhelmingly benefits rich households.
• Voting rights, including automatic universal voter registration, removal of barriers to voting rights restoration for disenfranchised Alabamians, and other policies to protect and expand multiracial democracy in the state.
• Criminal justice reform, including retroactive application of state sentencing guidelines and repeal of the Habitual Felony Offender Act.
• Death penalty reform, including a law to require juries to be unanimous in any decision to impose a death sentence.
• Public transportation to empower Alabamians with low incomes to stay connected to work, school, health care and their communities.
• Payday and title lending reform to protect consumers from getting trapped in debt.

Sanders said each point is a concern for neighbors, friends and co-workers, though we may not know the struggles these individuals are facing.

"We all do better when all of us do better," Sander said. "And all of us in Alabama would benefit from better public policies that would leave us secure in the knowledge that a layoff or a sudden illness wouldn't leave us at risk of financial ruin."