There have been many moments in the campaign for health care reform that have been hard and frustrating. But two things have kept me going: the stories I’ve heard about people who are suffering or have died for lack of health insurance and the effort so many Pennsylvanians have made to push Congress to enact good reforms. I’ve been inspired again and again by these stories and by the hard, thankless work so many people have done on behalf of reform.
On December 17 I took part in an event that moved me more than anything else I’ve done in the 18 months of the campaign because it joined both of these elements.
You probably have heard about Georgeanne Koehler, whose brother died early last year because he had no health insurance. Georgeanne has been campaigning for health care reform ever since. Early in December she asked HCAN, PHAN (the Pennsylvania Health Access Network), SEIU to help her encourage people to send holiday post cards to members of Congress about the need for reform.
On December 17, members of HCAN, PHAN SEIU and UFCW joined with Georgeanne to deliver a few thousand of those cards.
We did a press conference in front of the Capitol where Georgeanne told the story of her brother and Congress and some of us read the cards. Many of these stories were heart breaking. You can watch an excerpt of the press conference it by clicking here:
Then we met had a long meeting with Senator Specter who gave us an update about Congressional action, answered our questions, and then listened to Georgeanne talk about her brother and the rest of us read some of the cards. Senator Specter was visibly moved by our visit. You can see an excerpt of our meeting by clicking here:
Finally we delivered cards to the offices of Senator Casey and Representatives Carney, Dahlkemper, Schwartz and Sestak—who sent a staffer to the press conference. Deliveries to other members of Congress took place the week after.
At the end of the day, Georgeanne thanked us for helping to organize the holiday card event. She pointed out that the bill we are going to get won’t be perfect but it would have kept her brother alive. And she told us that she would finally be able to grieve for her brother when health care reform is passed.
I wish you all could have been with us in Washington. There is much about our political system that is, to be frank, appalling. When we all have worked so hard to create a movement that is backed by a solid majority of the country, it should not be so difficult to get legislation through Congress that includes more of what we want. But change is so difficult in America because of the powerful interests that fight it and the political institutions that make reform almost impossible.
But we saw last month that there is still room for citizens to make a difference if they are willing, as Georgeanne and so many others have been, to selflessly devote themselves to our common good. Without those efforts, no health care reform would be enacted at all. With it, we will be able to provide affordable health insurance for tens of millions of people and prohibit the worst practices of the health insurance industry. And even though the legislation enacted this year won’t be all we want, it will pave the road for future reform that will get us even closer to where we want to go.
So I ask you all not to let your frustration with our politics stop you from staying active on this campaign and on other ones in the future. It’s going to take a great deal of work but we can change our politics and make America more just. Your action, and only your action, is the only thing that can do it.