Health Care for All!

With 47 million Americans without health coverage, and rising health care costs busting state and local budgets, plus increasing pressure at contract time, it’s time for real health care reform. To call attention to Connecticut’s 400,000 uninsured, thousands of activists — including hundreds of AFSCME members — gathered at the capitol in Hartford to demand that Gov. M. Jodi Rell (R) and the Legislature take action to provide affordable universal health care.

“We need health care for all!” was the rallying cry of AFSCME members who gathered at the doorstep of the Connecticut State Capitol. Many of them, like elementary school custodian and Local 1186 member Cliff Moore, shared their harrowing stories about the nation’s neglectful health care system.

“A co-worker became ill, she had cancer and had to drop off the payroll. She had no health care. How do you fight cancer if you can’t afford to pay the medical bills? Our union held a successful fundraiser and that helped, but if we had universal health care she would have been taken care of,” said Moore.

As the General Assembly debates historic legislation to establish a comprehensive universal health care system, AFSCME remains at the forefront of the movement for change. Photo: Bill Burkhart