"Now is the Time to Act" on Health Care Reform

July 15, 2009 (Spokane) -- A diverse coalition of nearly 200 people seemed to agree at a forum that healthcare reform is needed, but it was the last speaker who stirred them with a call for action.

“Nothing has passed in this country without the voice of the American people,” said SEIU Healthcare 775NW member and home care worker Susie Young. “Now is the time to act.”

Young said that if healthcare reform is going to happen, people need to pick up the phone or write members of congress. They can even hit the streets to march for healthcare reform.

Her comments drew by far the most enthusiastic applause from participants in a www.DividedWeFail.org forum. The coalition is made of AARP, NFIB (National Federation of Independent Business) and SEIU.
Officials from all three groups said that they often disagree on political issues, but they agree that healthcare reform is needed.

“I think healthcare should be a right for everyone and not a privilege,” said SEIU Healthcare 775NW member and home care worker Valerie Anderson-Webb, who was a member of a six-person panel.

Webb, her mother and her children have lived most of their adult lives without health insurance. They all work hard for a living, but can’t seem to get ahead.

Webb did not have health insurance until she was 38. She had a lump for 20 years that went unchecked. When she got insurance because of the union, the lump was checked. She was in stage four cancer.

“We need to do something now – not 10 years down the road,” Webb said.