By Rick Dandes
DANVILLE — A small group of committed heath care-public option advocates ignored frigid temperatures and gathered in front of the Montour County Courthouse on Tuesday night in a candlelight vigil to share health care stories and send a message to Congress to fight for reforms.
The vigil was one of hundreds held statewide. It was organized locally by the Pennsylvania Health Access Network.
Eleven residents from Danville and Milton showed up to shed light on the problems of health care for the uninsured and under-insured. They stood on Mill Street waving at motorists and holding up large signs that read “Health Care Now.”
Amy Johnson, of Milton, said she and her husband, a musician, are uninsured and have been for about five years. “Fortunately, my three young children are insured by the state’s Children’s Health Insurance Program. But my husband and I know that we’re one accident away from total ruin. Living with this fear, it’s just not right,” she said.
Alicia Kriner, of Danville, told the group that for her, it was a question of a car payment or health care premium, “and I need my car to get to work.”
Tom Kane, a nurse from Danville, empathized with Johnson’s plight. He said: “It’s time for this nonsense to stop. Some people I know are also having to choose between buying food and paying for health care. This whole ... health care system is out of order.”
A retired health care administrator also was there to protest the existing system. “I’m retired,” said Richard Sawyer, of Danville, “and I fall under Medicare, so I’m taken care of. But I can tell you that costs are escalating and are out of control.”
Sawyer said his wife had a one-hour medical test and was billed $11,000 for it. “I mean, people just can’t afford to be sick anymore, and it shouldn’t be like that in this country,” he said.
One way or another, change is coming, said Antoinette Kraus, of Norristown, one of the event’s organizers.
The U.S. Senate is debating its version of health care reform. In the latest development, a special committee of moderate Democrats has come up with three alternatives to a public option.
This news did not please Kraus.
“Too many hard-working Americans cannot afford to pay the cost of their medical bills and are forced into bankruptcy while two people die every day in Pennsylvania from not having health insurance,” she said. “A public option is the way to go, we believe, and we can’t afford to wait.”
