National Healthcare Day in Pittsburgh
The Western PA Coalition for Single-Payer Healthcare joined with State Senator Jim Ferlo and others in a National Healthcare Day event on Dec. 14th in the lobby of the City-County Building. This free event highlighted the growing grassroots support for single-payer reform, as well as the mounting frustration of city and county government, organized labor, business, faith groups, healthcare providers, and consumers in managing the impact of spiraling healthcare costs under our present system.
Activists in scrubs could be seen leafleting downtown and encouraging people to come to the event, where videographers were taping testimony of people’s healthcare stories, nurses and medical students were giving free blood pressure screenings, advocates staffed information tables on single-payer, and there was continuous showing of the documentary “SiCKO” and “H.R. 676: The Single-Payer Solution.
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Joining the event was the “SiCKO-Cure Roadshow”, sponsored by Healthcare-NOW, the national grassroots organization working for passage of H.R. 676. The Roadshow ended its 11 states tour in Pittsburgh, and included Donna Smith, who was featured in SiCKO. Ms. Smith stated: “My family’s story is featured in ‘SiCKO’ not because we are so unique, but because we are not. Millions of Americans like us suffer in spite of buying health insurance throughout our adult lives… Now we must speak with one voice to our leaders and demand they listen.” |
State Senator Jim Ferlo and Donna Smith |