Photo by Dr. Brianna Anthony
Thanks to many Coloradans and the heartfelt work of dedicated volunteers, our day-long statewide gathering on June 14 inspired action! Culminating with about 1,000 people demonstrating creatively and peacefully for No Kings & Health Care for All at the corner of US 287 and South Boulder Road, People Powered Action for Single Payer Health Care helped us grow to be loud and proud for both democracy and health justice. Way to go!
Our storytellers grounded the entire day by sharing exactly why fixing health care matters so much; though their stories vary, almost all have either experienced or had a family member experience loss or hardship due to a US health care system — a system that’s rigged to take better care of profits than of people. This includes health providers fighting valiantly to care for their patients against increasing adversity, even as the system harms them as well.
In a rousing speech that brought everyone to their feet, Labor for Single Payer & Health Care for All Minnesota leader Rose Roach showed us how health insurance is being used against workers in class warfare, including by keeping unions from fighting for other benefits and by stagnating wages. And she offered clear ideas of how we can talk with our friends in unions so they can demand better.
Wendell Potter, the former health insurance industry PR executive turned whistle-blower and health reform writer-activist, shared his story of knowing he had to leave Cigna after seeing people in a rural area not unlike where he grew up lined up in the rain to receive free health care in barns. With over 16,000 subscribers to his Substack Healthcare Un-covered, Potter offers a shining example of how to harness considerable communications skills and investigative journalism to help rather than harm people —and offered up some tips for how to add our voices and more truth to the national conversations.
Via a gorgeous video by Aaliyah Ali, Sade Cooper shared her health care story of suffering an unnecessary miscarriage due to her health provider ignoring her concerns—an achingly common experience for patients of color— in order to stand up for health care justice for black women. Sade is co-founder & CEO of Collaborative Healing Initiative Within Communities—CHIC—and a leader with Justice for Black Coloradans.
Then, Kiera Hatton-Sena, Tatum Cochran, Michael Neil, and Emmett Blaney shared their perspectives of what’s needed to ensure health for women (including full reproductive rights); small business owners and their employees; the disability community; and the LGBTQ community and marginalized communities also experiencing the brunt of environmental injustice respectively. Best-selling author and Washington Post veteran journalist T.R. Reid led the discussion with charm and welcome humor.
The audience also gained a deeper perspective on the link between growing income inequality and job loss and the rise of voting red in America from Les Leopold; and U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal—Sponsor of the House Medicare for All Act—in a special message for the Colorado movement offered support and encouragement.
The stakes are high. People are dying when they could live. People are living with tremendous stress that could be well reduced via single payer universal health care administered simply and well.
Thank you, thank you, and thank you again for being a part of Saturday’s actions!
We look forward to working with you for a liberated, just future that includes a people-powered (and people-centered) way to ensure health care for all.
