Workers Make Voices Heard On Health Care

Ohio Workers Make Voices Heard On Health Care

by James Parks, Aug 13, 2009

Union members in Ohio made it clear yesterday at two meetings that working people want real health care reform and they want it now. These and other workers are fighting back against the lie-filled campaigns by extremist groups—some funded by corporate donations and backed by extremist Republican leaders who are vowing to kill health care reform.

In Cleveland, most of the 450 people at a regular report to constituents meeting hosted by Democratic Rep. Marcia Fudge supported health care reform. Outside the hall, more than 115 union members and health care reform activists drowned out about 25 opponents, some singing in German and carrying signs characterizing Obama as “Adolf Hitler.”

Other signs claimed reform would establish “death panels” for the elderly and disabled, and carried other outrageous lies. Click here for the real facts on health care reform legislation and why so-called death panels are egregious scare-monger tactics and lies.

Ohio AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer “Petee” Talley says health care reform is a crucial issue for Ohio workers, thousands of whom once were employed in the auto and other manufacturing industries. Says Talley:

They are the workers who lost their health care coverage when they lost their jobs through layoffs or the company they worked for moved overseas or to a nonunion state. Some have found new jobs, but they don’t have the same benefits as before, and many more are still looking for work. Heaven forbid that they or a member of their family gets seriously ill. They couldn’t afford to get treatment.

So for Ohioans, health care reform, which would bring affordable care for families, is a major priority.

Loree Soggs, president of the North Shore Labor Council in Cleveland, adds:

Health care reform is what the doctor ordered. Our unions are at the bargaining table struggling to keep our health care coverage. It would be great for everyone to get a national health care plan. It’s a no-brainer.

Meanwhile, in Columbus, Sen. Sherrod Brown hosted a lively two-hour health care forum yesterday where some 200 people crowded into a conference room while others listened in two overflow rooms. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that during the town hall, Brown said insurance companies are giving people bad information about the legislation and telling them they will lose their private coverage.

However, “doing nothing is unacceptable,” Brown said, adding:

If we don’t do anything, then we might see premiums double and you may not be able to afford coverage five years from now.