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Unions and Our Allies Keep Health Care Debate Civil |
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At town hall meetings, rallies and candlelight vigils, union members, health care activists and community allies are showing that the health care reform debate doesn’t belong to the loudest or most outrageous.
As a report form the Minnesota AFL-CIO says:
“The throng of union members who attended the recent town hall meeting that Rep. Tim Walz (D) held in Mankato know that their presence was crucial to keeping the debate thoughtful and respectful as right-wing fringe opponents of health care shouted and yelled in a weak attempt to disrupt the evening’s discussion.”
The 100 Minnesota union members were among the 800 or so residents who attended the Thursday town hall that filled a high school auditorium. According to news reports, the crowd was about evenly divided, but one group of opponents loudly booed and interrupted throughout the meeting. But, according to one participant, many left before the meeting was over.
Once they were gone, the air was lighter and people were able to calmly disagree with each other.
Carrie Mortrud, a registered nurse and member of the Minnesota Nurses Association, told the Rochester Post-Bulletin that nurses are “desperate for reform.”
Our nurses really know that we need to change the focus to pay for prevention….There’s no magic bullet to fix this, but we can’t continue the way we are.
Saturday in Albuquerque, some 400 union members joined a health care town hall meeting by Rep. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) that packed a 600-seat auditorium, spilled into an overflow room and then into the parking lot.
According to a report form the New Mexico Independent, the crowd—which included members of AFT, AFSCME, the Communications Workers (CWA), Machinists (IAM) and Laborers—was split about 70-30 percent in favor of the kind of comprehensive health reform now before Congress.
Heinrich told the crowd:
We need guaranteed choice, and that means if you’ve got Blue Cross Blue/Shield, you should be able to keep it. If you like your doctor, you should be able to keep him or her. And if you want access to a robust public option, you should have that choice, too.
About 500 union members gathered in Indianapolis when AFSCME’s Highway to Health Care bus rolled into town Friday. Rep. Andre Carson (D-Ind.) spoke about the need for reform, and some 30 health care-related organizations took part in a health fair that included diabetes, cholesterol and blood pressure screenings.
Last night in Columbus, Ohio, members of unions, including the AFL-CIO community affiliate Working America, joined with members of the Alliance for Retired Americans and Health Care for America Now (HCAN) in a candlelight vigil that drew some 160 health care reform supporters.
Union members have also taken part in recent health care town hall meetings in Murfreesboro and Jacksboro Tenn.; Iowa City, Iowa; and Whitehall, Wis.
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The small town of Peacham, Vermont held a Senator Bernie Sanders Town Meeting on Healthcare Sunday night attended by over 600 people.
Just like the Town Meetings held last week, in Rutland and Arlington (link: http://www.workerscenter.org/node/112 ) hundreds of Healthcare Is A Human Right Campaign (HCisHR, link: http://www.workerscenter.org/healthcare ) and single-payer healthcare supporters came to show their support, outnumbering opponents at probably more than 25-1 (Rutland was probably 6-to-1, Arlington probably about 10-to-1). Our unions and the HCisHR local Organizing Committees helped turn out hundreds of people.
Over 300 new people signed HCisHR postcards to the Vermont Legislature, which call on them taking action this year to make healthcare a basic human right and taking action on state single-payer bills S.88/H.100. Senator Sanders reiterated his commitment to right to healthcare and his belief that we will get there by having a single-payer system in Vermont and eventually the entire country. There was powerful testimony of people calling for systemic change and if it cannot be done nationally that Vermont should lead the way.
“The difference between Bernie’s Town Meetings and the other Congressional Town Meetings held around the country is the difference between day and night,” says James Haslam, Director of Vermont Workers’ Center/Jobs with Justice, who coordinates the HCisHR. “With the huge turnouts at these events, and the overwhelming support for fundamental change in healthcare it is clear that when the federal reform falls far short from solving the current crisis, in Vermont we are ready to lead the push to redefine healthcare, from a benefit or commodity, to a basic right and basic public good.”
Traven, Your comment is encouraging. We have a plan in NM also at the state level. We are pushing for a state waiver/option in whatever comes out of DC, so that we won’t be tied to a national system that is bound to fail. Check out http://www.nmhealthsecurity.org. Several other states have plans but if we get trumped by the feds we might be out of luck. You have a great person in your Sen. Bernie Sanders. Hope he can try to boot our two NM senators toward his viewpoint.
you need to cocentrat more of your efforts in the SOUTH since this is where the need for enlightnment is the greatest