Nonprofit leaders called on Spokane’s faith community and others during a Sept. 25 informational meeting at the CHAS Health Learning Institute to help refugees navigate changes that could leave several thousand Spokane County refugees without health care coverage.
“We can’t do it alone,” wrote Kimmie Curry, the community engagement manager for the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Spokane, in the meeting’s email invite. IRC in Spokane, Better Health Together, CHAS Health and Spokane Workforce Council convened the informational meeting to help faith and other community leaders understand the changes and how they can connect affected refugees with resources.
Beginning Oct. 1, the IRC in Spokane estimates that the refugees in Spokane County who are at risk of losing Medicaid include 200 medically fragile refugees, 1,000 refugees with pending green card applications and more than 2,500 Ukrainian refugees who arrived in Spokane through the Uniting for Ukraine (U4U)…