Road to Victory  |  October 27, 2008

A Tightrope for the Uninsured: Tennessee Steelworkers rally for health care

BY Lynne Baker, USW Communications
 

Nashville union members and community activists are urging the presidential candidates to end the debate over national health care reform and guarantee affordable choice in health care for every American.

The statistics regarding the US health care system are grim: 47 million uninsured; 700,000 families each year face bankruptcy because of medical debt; 18,000 die each year because they do not have access to health care.

To get the attention of the media and the presidential candidates regarding the crisis, labor and community groups rallied Oct. 6 in downtown Nashville the night before the second presidential debate.

The rally drew several hundred people and featured musical entertainment, hip-hop poetry and national and local speakers. During many of the speeches, Steelworkers stood up in-between the two aisles of seats and held signs high with phrases like “We Are Health Care Voters” and “Health Care First.”

Stories of Inadequacy

Many USW Local 1055 members from Bridgestone-Firestone in La Vergne, Tenn., who attended the rally, had their own stories to tell about the inadequacy of the present health care system.

Stanford Murray, who spoke at the rally, said he has always “been blessed” to have insurance through his employer. He has two sons who have hemophilia, a blood disorder, and must have three shots a week. These shots cost over $300,000 per year. Since he has health insurance, he only has to pay $24 a month for prescriptions.

 “Every day I hear stories from fellow blood brothers and sisters who have lost everything from their homes to their life savings as well as their jobs. These are people without adequate health insurance who have to pay 20 percent of the cost of their medicines. It’s almost $50,000 per year for them,” Murray said.

Pre-existing Conditions

Another Local 1055 member who says he is blessed to have health insurance is Randall Norton, who has a six-and-a-half year old son with cerebral palsy.

“If I lose this job, I may go to another company and they may not accept my son because of his pre-existing condition,” Norton said.

 “I just think in this day in time each individual should have the opportunity to get health care. It should be a constitutional right in this great country. We shouldn’t let anyone fall through the cracks,” he added.

Norton likes Barrack Obama’s health care proposal because it will cover all children and helps those who are not quite old enough to get Medicare.

Life Without Insurance

While Carla Riley has health insurance, her son, a painter, and her daughter, a clerk, have jobs that do not offer it.

“We definitely need a better system than we’ve got,” Riley said. “My kids can’t go to the doctor unless I help them out. I’ve paid $100, $150 to get my son in to the doctor. It cost me $1,400 to have his wisdom teeth pulled. He couldn’t pay it.

“It’s hard to get a doctor to see you if you don’t have insurance,” she added.

Riley likes Obama’s health care plan because everyone has the right to have insurance. “I think under the McCain plan less people will go to the doctor and more people will have conditions they’ll have to let go because they’ll still not be able to go to a doctor.”

Inadequate Coverage

Al Fleming said he pitched in with the rest of his family to help his parents with their health care problems because they were under-insured. 

“Had there not been a large pool of family members to divide the cost, my parents never would have had the care, medicine and stuff they needed,” he said.  

Fleming’s teenage daughter, Taylor, also had a story to tell.

“A lot of people don’t have health care and they really need it,” she said. “I have a friend in that situation. She had a transplant and her health insurance didn’t cover it. Her parents paid out of pocket.”

Fleming said he likes Obama’s approach to health care.

“I think Obama has a better chance to fix this problem than any of his predecessors,” he said. “I really believe he’ll make it happen.”