AFSCME Highway to Health Care Ends Tour, Fight for Reform Gears Up

by Mike Hall, Aug 31, 2009

Dr. Valerie Arkoosh, president-elect of the National Physicians Alliance, joined union members at the AFL-CIO to back passage of a strong health care reform bill.

Health care reform, embodied in the Senate bill crafted by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy and H.R. 3200 in the House, will give patients the care they need when they need it and allow doctors the opportunity to provide that care, says Dr. Valerie Arkoosh, president-elect of the National Physicians Alliance.

Arkoosh told a crowd of nearly 300 in front of the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C., celebrating the last stop of AFSCME’s Highway to Health Care Reform tour:

Sen. Kennedy’s and the House bill will give our patients the peace of mind that the health care they need will be there when they need it. As a doctor, it means it will be easier for me to take care of my patients…spend more time in the exam room listening to them instead of fighting on the phone with the insurance companies.

AFSCME’s Highway to Health Care Reform tour kicked off Aug. 12 in Bismarck, N.D., and rolled through 19 cities, drawing thousands of union members, health care and community activists and local media. It also provided a compelling counterpoint to the angry agitators who were seeded into health care town hall meetings by extremist groups and health insurance industry front organizations. And as AFSCME President Gerald McEntee said at today’s rally, the opposition to health care has been

fueled by politicians bought and paid for by the insurance companies….We’ve got to stop the insurance companies from getting richer and richer while Americans are getting sicker and sicker.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney called the unique tour the “spear head” in the union movement’s August mobilization, with the goal to

send members of Congress back to Washington, D.C., with a strong showing of support for health care reform.

The tour generated more than 4,000 messages to lawmakers urging passage of strong health care reform with a robust public option. In addition, more than 18,000 union members have attended more than 400 congressional town hall meetings since the disruptive tactics and plans by health care reform opponents to hijack the meetings came to light earlier this month.

Sweeney said even more action is in store for the last week of the congressional recess and the Labor Day weekend where the call for health care reform will be heard at thousands of parades, picnics and rallies. He also said the upcoming AFL-CIO Convention will “serve as the launching pad” for an even bigger push to pass health care reform.

There is one more stop to be made on the Highway to Health Care Reform tour, said AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker.

The last stop will be at the White House when President Obama signs the health care reform bill.

Evoking the memory of Kennedy and his nearly five-decade-long fight for health care reform, and the words of Mother Jones, Sweeney said:

We mourn Ted Kennedy’s passing. But we’re not just going to mourn, we’re going to organize by fighting like hell for health care reform.

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