A peaceful health care reform rally

More than 100 people assembled on the front lawn of a Congress member’s district office Tuesday and petitioned for health care reform without shouts, threats or belligerence.

Of course, everyone paying a visit to the office of U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat representing San Jose, Calif., was in favor of health care reform legislation pending in Congress; rumors of counter-demonstrators showing up never materialized. But amid all the media coverage of anti-reform protesters shouting down their representatives, screaming “socialism” and spouting nonsense about government “death panels,” the hour-long event in San Jose focused on a key argument for reform: People who had health insurance but lost it and can’t afford it on their own.

The rally, one of 50 held today in 45 cities across the country, was organized by PACT, People Acting in Community Together, a multiethnic interfaith grassroots organization determined to create a more just community. So, you know where they’re coming from. But voices of the community advocates for health care reform have been drowned out by the shouting by protesters at town hall meetings various Congress members are holding in their districts during the August Congressional recess.

A protester holds a sign urging Congress to pass health care reform

The theme of the event was “No Recess for Health Reform,” as supporters used the recess to “strengthen [Lofgren] in her resolve to pass health care reform when she returns to Washington,” as one of the speakers put it.

Lofgren emerged from her office to address the rally, noting that at another event earlier in Silicon Valley, she was booed by health care reform opponents.

“We as Americans have to talk to each other,” she said, but quickly added, “We have to stand up for the truth.”

Several people followed Lofgren at the podium giving testimonials of how they have been treated by a health insurance system that charges too much, buries them in debt with uncovered expenses, denies them coverage or excludes them from coverage for pre-existing medical conditions.

U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose)

Ellen and Ray Turner told their story of the retirement insurance he had after retiring from the Silicon Valley software company Cadence that started off good. After a few years, though, their annual deductible rose to $10,000. Over a three-year period, their out-of-pocket costs for health care jumped to $71 a day, from $30. Eventually they switched to a Kaiser Permanente plan that carried only a $500 deductible and out-of-pocket averages out to $42 a day.

Sheila Dowd spoke with her two young children beside her and told the story of her and her husband trying to start their own business, likening their ambition to that of the founders of Google and HP, two legendary Silicon Valley companies.

But their plan was thwarted by the cost of ensuring their small family, Dowd said. Insurers considered to be disqualifying “pre-existing conditions” her daughter’s ear infections and her husband’s pollen allergy. The Dowds are going to have to abandon their startup dream and either she or her husband will have to go get a job that provides employer-sponsored health insurance, Mrs. Dowd said.

A minister leads the group in prayer for health care reform

The program also featured comments from Chris Wilder, CEO of the Valley Medical Center Foundation. Valley Medical Center treats a high number of patients without insurance in its emergency room, he said.

Five years ago, Valley Medical Center saw an average of 170 people per day in its emergency room. By January of this year, it had days when the number of visits reached 400 a day and in April it saw some 525 patient days, Wilder said.

Another woman told of losing her job and her employer-paid health insurance, continuing her coverage under COBRA, but when that ran out, going onto a HIPAA insurance program whose premiums were so high and coverage so limited, “my medical insurance was unusable,” she said.

“I thought of my lack of insurance as a personal failure, but I no longer see it as my fault,” the woman told the crowd. “It is the health care system that is a failure.”