On the Road to Reform
HITTING THE TOWN | Shown near the Indiana Statehouse in downtown Indianapolis, our “Highway to Health Care” bus visited 20 cities garnering headlines and the enthusiastic support of local residents.
HITTING THE TOWN | Shown near the Indiana Statehouse in downtown Indianapolis, our “Highway to Health Care” bus visited 20 cities garnering headlines and the enthusiastic support of local residents.
Photo Credit: Tom Strickland
AFSCME’s Highway to Health Care RV bus traveled the country sending a clear message to members of Congress: “We need quality, affordable health care NOW!”
By Gonzalo Baeza
During this Summer’s congressional recess, thousands of Americans greeted AFSCME’s Highway to Health Care RV bus. It visited 10 states and 20 cities reminding legislators to fix our broken health care system. The rock-n-roll themed mobile activism center was equipped with laptops, cell phones and postcards for people to contact their members of Congress.
As AFSCME Pres. Gerald W. McEntee said when launching the campaign in early August: “Though opponents of reform spew venom and misinformation, Americans are revved up and ready for real health care reform. This tour is a unique way of taking that message to battleground states across the country.”
From Bismarck, N.D., to a closing rally in Washington, DC, passing through cities like Little Rock, Cincinnati and Indianapolis, the bus brought local residents together with one call for change. Hundreds signed letters demanding that Congress support the choice of a public health insurance plan that competes with private insurance companies. As a recent AARP poll found, nearly eight in 10 Americans support a federal health insurance plan for those without private insurance.
This fact was brought home during the bus tour event in Wilmington, Del., where New Castle child care provider Claudette Sherwood told local radio station WDEL News about her struggles to pay a $1,600 emergency room bill.
“I learned very quickly that one accident can bring you from a higher standard of living to square one,” she said.
When the bus pulled into Charlottesville, Va., local resident Melissa McCrumb shared her story with a local NBC affiliate. A recent University of Virginia graduate, McCrumb works two jobs yet lacks health care coverage.
“We are at the mercy of insurance companies that care more about turning a dime, than our health,” she said.
These testimonials are why we need a uniquely American solution that will allow families to keep their insurance or have the choice of getting quality, affordable health care through a public option. Competition from a public plan would drive premium costs down. According to a new report by the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund, premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance have increased 119 percent between 1999 and 2008. If no health care reform is enacted, premiums could increase 94 percent to an average of $23,842 per family by 2020, the report concluded.
