Free barbecue and a call for health-care reform

The annual free barbecue by Utah Poverty Partnership scheduled Wednesday will feature burgers and a call for affordable health care for all Americans.

The event will be held in the Rice Terrace at Liberty Park at 6 p.m.

Event planners are hoping to make people in Utah more aware of the problems facing those living in poverty as well as enlist support for federal and state efforts to expand health insurance coverage.

More than a third of the 46 million Americans, including 300,000 Utahns, without health insurance are living under the federal poverty level, said Lou Ann Stevenson, co-chairwoman of the partnership's Anti-Hunger Action Committee governing board.

Rising health-care costs are arguably the biggest issue impacting low income American families, she said.

Five bills are currently being drafted, and one or more could come up for a vote in Congress before the monthlong recess that begins Aug. 3.

Under current Utah Medicaid rules, parents are kicked off Medicaid insurance when their family goes above 50 percent of the poverty level. Able bodied adults without children are not eligible for Medicaid even if they are impoverished.

For more information, visit www.crossroads-u-c.org.