Health Care for America NOW!
Waunakee science teacher Steve Wright (left), Randolph teacher Jennifer Giedd and WEAC Vice President Guy Costello participate in the launch of the Health Care for America Now campaign. View slide show
| More than 100 national and local groups, including the NEA and WEAC, are represented in the campaign. In Wisconsin, the steering committee includes WEAC, and organizations such as AFSCME, Citizen Action of Wisconsin, SEIU and the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO. Health Care for American Now is organizing to assure that the first order of business of the next president and congress is to pass legislation in 2009 that guarantees quality, affordable health care for all. Health Care for America Now offers a bold new vision for health care reform: Americans can keep the private insurance they have, join a new private insurance plan, or choose a public health insurance plan. The campaign also calls for a government role in setting and enforcing rules on the insurance industry which consistently charges whatever it wants, sets high deductibles, denies coverage based on preexisting conditions, and drops coverage when people get sick.
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Educators from De Soto, Randolph, Milwaukee and Waukesha joined WEAC Vice President Guy Costello at the state Capitol (July 8, 2008) to help kick off a national campaign demanding quality, affordable health care for all.
The event was among more than 50 held in cities across the United States, designed to bring a focus to the national health care reform campaign – Health Care for America Now.
School funding and health care are closely tied to each other, and the top issues of importance to educators across the state, Costello said. He noted that for years, educators have been giving up salary increases to maintain health care benefits and that the amount for health care co-pays and deductibles is steadily growing. “Many education support professionals don’t have health insurance,” he added. “Others are working solely for health care.”
Costello said educators care about quality, affordable health care because it is essential to:
- Recruiting and retaining quality educators.
- Supporting student learning.
- Keeping Wisconsin’s proud tradition of public education excellence.
Most of all, Costello said, educators care about kids and families – many of whom are suffering under the current health care system.
“When kids are sick and out of the classroom, they can’t be learning,” Costello said.
“Maintaining the status quo won’t work. We need reform,” Costello said. “It’s a problem, and we need to change it.”
Joining Costello in the Health Care for America Now event were Randolph teacher Jennifer Giedd, MTEA President Dennis Oulahan, Waunakee science teacher Steve Wright and De Soto math teacher Curt Christensen.
Having just returned from the NEA Representative Assembly, the teachers pushed hard to bring health care reform to the forefront in Washington, D.C. and are prepared to push hard at home.
“I have had a student miss a week of school, waiting until Daddy got his paycheck before going to the doctor,” Giedd said. No community is exempt from this health care crisis, she added. “You don’t have to go far to find families in need. There are families everywhere making choices between food and health care.”
Posted July 9, 2008