{"id":12628,"date":"2025-10-23T16:23:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T16:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/12628\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T16:23:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T16:23:08","slug":"families-invited-to-share-health-care-stories-at-free-costume-giveaway-in-bethlehem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/12628\/","title":{"rendered":"Families invited to share health care stories at free costume giveaway in Bethlehem"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2014 Affordable Pennsylvania is teaming up with a coalition of advocacy groups this weekend to host a family-friendly event that mixes Halloween festivities with conversations about health care costs.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mobilize.us\/democracypa\/event\/861522\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Monsters, Masks and Medical Bills<\/a>\u201d event will take place Saturday, Oct. 25 at the Bethlehem Area Public Library, where organizers will distribute free children\u2019s Halloween costumes while supplies last.<\/p>\n<p>Alongside the giveaway, families are invited to share their personal experiences with health care affordability and rising insurance premiums.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"630\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Monsters-Masks-Medical-Bills-Mobilize-v2.png\" alt=\"monsters masks medical bills event halloween bethlehem pa\" class=\"wp-image-6165\"  \/>(Distributed \/ Affordable PA)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re working with similar organizations to put on this community event,\u201d said Rachele Fortier, Pennsylvania state director for Affordable Pennsylvania. \u201cWe want to elevate the voices of community members and encourage our members of Congress to take action to address rising health care costs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Affordable Pennsylvania is a 501(c)(4) advocacy organization that educates residents on how federal policy decisions affect their everyday lives. Fortier said the group is particularly concerned about the expiration of enhanced premium tax credits under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which helped lower health insurance costs for many Pennsylvanians.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of people are going to be seeing their health insurance premiums increase,\u201d Fortier said. \u201cThe only way to fix this is for Congress to take action.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the costume giveaway, the event will feature opportunities for attendees to record short stories and photos \u2014 shared with permission \u2014 to highlight the human impact of health care costs. Organizers hope these stories will help connect neighbors and bring community perspectives to policymakers and the media.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCome for the costumes, stay for the conversation,\u201d the event <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mobilize.us\/democracypa\/event\/861522\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">registration page<\/a> reads. \u201cLet\u2019s turn fear into action and make health care work for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This article was produced by Lehigh Daily as part of a paid sponsorship from Affordable Pennsylvania. Lehigh Daily maintains full editorial independence over the content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2014 Affordable Pennsylvania is teaming up with a coalition of advocacy groups this weekend to host&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,6153],"class_list":{"0":"post-12628","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-news","11":"tag-sponsored"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}