MoveOn organizer Susan Master
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — December 8, 2009. Borough Hall, illuminated by holiday lights, served as a backdrop for a MoveOn “We Can’t Afford To Wait” health care vigil Tuesday evening. 30 Staten Islanders braved the cool temperatures to stand up for health care reform with a strong public option. The vigil, part of MoveOn’s “Health Care for America Now” (HCAN) initiative, was organized by Islander Susan Master and was intended to urge Congressman Mike McMahon (D, NY-13) to vote for comprehensive health care reform. McMahon is the only member of the New York state congressional delegation to oppose the health care reform package when it was voted on in the House of Representatives.
Vigilers outside Staten Island’s Borough Hall
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)
Speaking at the event was Dr. Vishal Verma, local business owner Sheriann Cumberbath, CUNY adjunct professor Gina Ohene, Carolyn Clark, a health care consumer struggling to pay for medical care, and David Greenson of MoveOn.
Dr. Vishal Verma (left) speaks to the crowd
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)
Dr. Verma asked the crowd how the United States could call itself a developed country when it has 40 million people without health care.
“I think this is the time Washington should act,” Verma said.
“Health care for America, now, now now!” he added.
Surrounded by vigilers holding signs that said, “Today: 2547 bankruptcies from costly health care,” Carolyn Clark told the crowd, “My health care is bankrupting my family. I have suffered from severe psoriatic arthritis for the past twenty years. I have watched my insurance coverage go from stellar to woefully inadequate. It does not cover any of my homecare costs — the care that allows me to bathe, dress, be active in the community and actually have a life in spite of disability — which run several hundred dollars a week.”
While Medicare Part D and her husband’s salary cover her current medical expenses her family is unable to put money aside for their children’s education.
“Why is my family being punished because I have a chronic illness?” she asked.
CUNY professor Gina Ohene (center) needs health care
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)
City University professor Gina Ohene has to provide her own health care – the CUNY system does not offer benefits to adjuncts. A pink slip away from having no coverage, Ohene wants to see comprehensive health care coverage extended to everyone in need.
“I realize that I’m not just speaking for myself I’m speaking for thousands of other people not just in the CUNY system, all over, who don’t have health insurance,” she said.
