John Kerry's town hall meeting on KidsFirst

[katinmn]

I just came back from John Kerry's public forum on KidsFirst, his legislation that provides for universal health care for children.

I supported it before, but now I'm ready to fight hard for it.

The town hall-style meeting was full with doctors, emergency room nurses, school nurses, retired nurses, parents and concerned citizens.

The stories from the parents and the nurses, coupled with Sen. Kerry's passion for this issue, had many of us crying. (bleeding heart liberals)

A high school girl told how her poor Minneapolis school held a fundraiser so a classmate could get life-saving surgery for a tumor (sound familiar?);

A veteran school nurse with 25 years in St. Paul Public Schools shared how a child who broke his hand on a Friday evening waited until Monday morning so the nurse would look at it and get him some help. The family refused to take him to the doctor because they had no health insurance;

An ER nurse said it's common practice for the uninsured to wait until a child's illness becomes an emergency so they can bring them into the ER. That's the only situation when the health system is required to treat them. She said often, the hospital is filled and they ship these kids to hospitals in Duluth or Rochester, or to S. Dakota;

A grandma-type from a smaller town outstate cried when she told how she is always participating in fundraisers for young children in her community with cancer and other serious diseases;

U.S. Congresswoman Betty McCollum relayed how the state House of Representatives just voted to cut MinnCare which will take 30,000 working poor off the sliding-fee state health program;

John Kerry said it's time to get mad and hold those that vote against such legislation as KidsFirst and MinnCare accountable. Let them know that we're watching and that they will be replaced.

He said his goal is to get kids insured first, and then work for universal health care for all. I think it's doable if we stand up and demand it.

There are so many issues that are at a crisis stage, but this is one we can win.

An action kit is soon to be added to his website.
http://www.johnkerry.com/features/kidsfirst.html

[eridani]

1. The plan will definitely help some--

--and on that grounds I support it. But what the meeting really did was to remind me of how much we need real universal health care--everybody in and nobody out. The plan would never have stopped me from going hungry as a kid though--my brothers and I were healthy little rug rats, it was our parents whose medical bills made us poor.

[kerrygoddess]

2. Thaks for posting this!

Good report! We've got JK's back on this on LUTD - http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/default.asp?view=plink&id=829

[katinmn]

3. thank you. I just posted two newspaper articles on the visit

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=160x9975