Hundreds of Vermonters Urged Lawmakers To Act on Healthcare

MONTPELIER, VT- A large crowd of over 350 people attended the joint hearings held by Vermont Senate Health & Welfare Committee and House Committee on Healthcare at the Statehouse Tuesday. Dozens of Vermonters testified urging lawmakers to pass the single-payer healthcare bill, S.88 and H.100 (see summary here: http://www.workerscenter.org/node/168). Senator Bernie Sanders joined hundreds of members of the Healthcare Is A Human Right Campaign, which is coordinated by the Vermont Workers' Center.

"We come to you tonight to demand a healthcare system that is based on principles that recognize that healthcare is a human right," spoke Margaret Dunne from Rutland, reading testimony on behalf of her wife Bela Schrug.

The testimonies of almost a hundred Vermonters spoke to the legislature of how deeply and widely the current system of healthcare is impacting the state. Reed Webster, a state worker from Bellows Falls, spoke of chronic back problems that won't allow him to retire at 55 because he would be unable to afford private insurance.

"How many other Vermonters are working, that could retire, because they need the insurance?" Mr. Webster asked in closing his remarks. "How many jobs would become available if these people could retire?"

Polutney resident Anne Gibbs explained the pain she and her husband face in their struggle to find insurance despite their pre-existing medical conditions. "We want to have children, but we're afraid to without healthcare."

In 2008, the Vermont Workers' Center launched the Healthcare Is A Human Right Campaign and on May 1, 2009 organized a "Healthcare Is A Human Right" Rally at the Statehouse which drew over twelve hundred participants and was the largest weekday rally in the state's capitol history. Over the past few months the campaign has organized a series of ten People’s Forums on Healthcare across the state with seventy-seven state legislators and over eight hundred total participants.

Earlier last week, more than two hundred Vermonters from the Vermont Worker's Center "Healthcare Is A Human Right Campaign (HCHR)" filled the Cedar Creek room at the Statehouse to deliver thousands of postcards to the leadership of the State Legislature and to take action on the two single-payer healthcare bills, S.88 and H.100, and mend the broken healthcare system this year.

The Vermont Worker's Center collected over four thousand post cards from all over the state this Fall. The postcards begin with "It's time for Vermont's elected officials to recognize, as the people of Vermont do, that healthcare is a human right - not a commodity, benefit or privilege but a public good that government has the inalienable responsibility to ensure. It is time for the Vermont legislature to establish a system of universal healthcare that is equitable, is accountable to the people, and eliminates all barriers to healthcare." The postcards were addressed to the leaders of the Vermont Legislature: Senate Pro Tem Peter Shumlin, Speaker of the House Shap Smith, and Senator Doug Racine and Rep. Steve Maier, who both chair of the Healthcare Committees in the Senate and House.

"We have an historic opportunity, not only for the people of this state but for the people of America, of leading this country forward in terms of a comprehensive, cost effective universal healthcare system, and if Vermont goes forward, other states will follow," said Senator Sanders.

* Videos of testimony coming soon.

MORE INFO:
- "A Call for Health Reform" Jan 13, Times Argus, http://www.timesargus.com/article/20100113/NEWS/100119988

- "Hundreds Attend Statehouse Health Care Hearing" Jan 12, Seven Days, http://7d.blogs.com/blurt/2010/01/hundreds-attend-statehouse-health-care...

- "Public hearing on health care promises to turn personal" Jan 10, Rutland Herald & Times Argus http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20100110/NEWS/100119998 (great photo)

- "Flurry of Activity in First Day of Session", VT Press Bureau, http://www.timesargus.com/article/20100107/NEWS02/1070348/1003/NEWS02

- "Workers Lobby for Single Payer Health Care" VT Public Radio, http://www.vpr.net/news_detail/86826/

- "Health Care Rally Held at Vermont Statehouse" http://www.wptz.com/news/22165408/detail.html

- "Group heads to Montpelier to push for healthcare reform" http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=11776082

- "VT. health reform tops January Agenda" VT Press Bureau http://www.timesargus.com/article/RH/20091214/NEWS03/912140360

- "To Your Health" 12/22/09 Seven Days column by Shay Totten http://www.7dvt.com/2009your-health

- Dec 10: Human Rights Day Report with Nurses & Sen. Racine: http://www.workerscenter.org/node/190

- Sen. Racine Announces Hearings on S.88/H.100: http://www.workerscenter.org/node/185

- Rutland Herald Editorial endorses HCHR Campaign: http://www.workerscenter.org/node/138

- Musicians launch benefit CD for HCHR Campaign: http://vermontcareforall.org/

- VPR's All Things Considered with Scott Ainslie, musician and HCHR leader. Link to listen http://www.vpr.net/flash/audio_player/audio_player.php?id=29863

- Dec 5: The Vermont NEA, the State's Largest Union Gets Behind HCHR Campaign http://www.workerscenter.org/node/189

- Healthcare Is A Human Right Campaign: www.workerscenter.org/healthcare

- Summary of bills S.88/H.100: http://www.workerscenter.org/node/168

- Burlington Free Press My Turn "Vermont Must Lead The Way" http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20091202/OPINION02/912020315/...

- Vermont Public Radio Report on HCHR: http://www.workerscenter.org/node/134