Becky's Blog
There's lots of talk in our community about how Congress will move forward with passing health insurance reform, and now outside special interest groups such as Code Red are attempting to scare seniors and mislead our friends and neighbors "Republican robo-calls target Boccieri," March 5).
The facts are that none of the health care reform proposals would cut Medicare benefits or increase your out-of-pocket costs. In fact, health care reform will reduce costly, preventable hospital readmissions, saving patients lives and money.
I have lived in this community all of my life, and times are tougher now than I can remember. Working people are struggling from paycheck to paycheck, and one of the biggest costs is health insurance and medical bills.
I feel that President Obama's health care reform plan is just what we need. His plan would be the biggest cut to middle-class taxes in history and make insurance affordable for more than 31 million Americans who can't get it today. With 14,000 people losing their insurance every day in this economy, we must pass this plan.
Our congressman, John Boccieri, needs to show his support for the working people of this area and vote in favor of health care reform. This reform bill will reduce the deficit by cutting overspending and waste, and make coverage more affordable for the families who need it.
Plus, it will stop insurance companies from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions or dropping coverage because someone gets too sick.
This community has suffered enough over the last decade because of inaction in Congress. We voted for change because we wanted our elected leaders to improve the lives of working people, and health care reform will do just that.
Congressman Boccieri should stand with us and vote for the president's health care proposal.
Becky Williams | Massillon
President, District 1199, Service Employees International Union
Yesterday, SEIU District 1199 President Becky Williams and other Union officers visited members at State of Ohio agencies in Columbus.
Our Union's "Tour de District" program of site visits is designed to encourage greater communication and rank-and-file input within SEIU 1199.
An evening reception at the SEIU 1199 Columbus office featured State Representatives Ted Celeste, Dan Stewart, John Patrick Carney and Tracy Maxwell Heard, as well as experts on the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System. The reception also offered attending members the chance to discuss various issues with Union officers, including how 1199's political relationships impact our plans to protect and improve members' gains.
Click here for more photos of the event. Previous cities visited have included Cleveland; Lorain; Toledo; Youngstown; Cincinnati; Canton; Huntington, W.V. and Prestonsburg, Ky.
On Thursday, I had the privilege of representing our Union by invitation of President Barack Obama at the White House for a reception with other business, community and labor leaders from around the country. President Obama understands the important role that organized labor plays in rebuilding the middle class and protecting the rights of working people.
On the heels of a Jobs Summit hosted by President Obama, he reasserted his commitment to our economic recovery, focusing his energy on job creation and expanding health care coverage to millions of Americans. While there is still a lot of work to do - Americans have a leader that is dedicated to doing whatever it takes to change the course from the previous administration.
We have a chance now to build a 21st century economy that rewards work and makes sure that our kids will do as well as their parents did. It is time for our leaders in Congress to work with President Obama to put Americans back to work.
October marks National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and across the country women and men are speaking up about the need for early detection of this disease that kills a woman every 75 seconds globally. In the United States alone a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer every 3 minutes and dies every 13 minutes.
While the threat of breast cancer is very real for both women and men in every corner of our State, the lethality of the disease is far greater for those without health insurance.
According to the American Cancer Society, mammography is a vital detection tool in indentifying breast cancer at an early, treatable stage before physical symptoms develop. This saves lives and increases treatment options. Thanks to mammograms and other medical testing, 68% of breast cancers in Ohio were diagnosed in early stages.
Unfortunately, for the over 1 million people in Ohio that don't have health insurance, access to life saving tests and treatments are expensive and out of reach. This means treatable diseases like breast cancer are often not detected until physical symptoms develop and probability of survival continues to decline.
Even those with health insurance find themselves at odds with insurance companies. During the President's address to a joint session of Congress, President Obama cited an example of a woman from Texas that was about to get a double mastectomy when her insurance company canceled her policy because she forgot to declare a case of acne. By the time she had her insurance reinstated, her breast cancer more than doubled in size.
Stories like this and the millions of others like it should no longer be tolerated in the United States. We spend more on health care than any other nation, and yet, we rank near the bottom in quality of care and accessibility.
Health insurance must be accessible so that even those with pre-existing conditions have the ability to obtain health insurance and make it affordable by controlling costs and creating a public option that will create competition for insurance companies.
Take action this October - help make Ohio more aware of breast cancer and stand up for affordable and accessible health care for all.
