Many who can’t afford health insurance wait until it’s almost too late to go to the hospital, according to Deb Sample, a nurse of 18 years.
“What I’ve seen is people wait until they are so sick that what they’re going to have is a longer hospitalization, perhaps even a lifetime battle with a chronic illness as a result of what they’ve been exposed to or not been able to have treated,” Sample said.
Sample’s story was one of many shared at a set of community forums Thursday at Morgan Community college. Forum organizers hope the stories may help change the health care system in Colorado.
Senate Bill 208, the Access to Affordable Health Care Act, was passed by the General Assembly and signed by former Gov. Bill Owens in June. The act established the Blue Ribbon Commission for Comprehensive Health Care Reform, which will study health care in Colorado and submit a comprehensive recommendation on health care reform to the Legislature at the end of the year.
Representatives of the Colorado Progressive Coalition and the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless collected many personal stories from individuals at Thursday’s events to submit them to the Blue Ribbon Commission for consideration for the health care proposal.
“We would like to hear from you so that we can take that feedback to the commission so that your voices are being heard, and that maybe the work that we are doing can influence the proposals that they will be selecting,” said Francoise Mbabazi, health care program director for Colorado Progressive Coalition (CPC).
Clark Bouton, health care organizer for CPC, said the group has held about 12 of the forums throughout the state.
“What we’re doing is simply going all over the state holding forums ... to publicize the issue to inform people of its existence, because very few people even know at this point that it exists,” Bouton said. “And to encourage people to have input to the commission and to the Legislature when the recommendation finally goes to the Legislature.”
CPC members also distributed a survey to seminar attendees to gather information about people’s experiences with health care and what they would like to see happen.
In addition to submitting stories at the forums, Mbabazi said the community can help raise an awareness of health care issues by organizing activist groups in the community.
“This is a grassroots issue and we want each and every one to really participate,” Mbabazi said to the group. “We are asking people to help us organize in their communities, in their schools, in their churches to share your health care challenges. If you believe the system is broken, how would you like to see that change?”
Andrea Kawulok, program coordinator for Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, invited CPC to make presentations at the forums.
Colorado Coalition for the homeless is a non-profit organization that works toward preventing homelessness and creating solutions for homeless and at-risk families, children and individuals throughout the state.
“My role is to find out what kind of things the community wants to know about and then try and bring people to the community to address those issues,” Kawulok said.
CPC is a statewide, multi-issue network of people and organizations that works to create action necessary for progressive social, racial, economic and environmental social change. Group members work with the belief that health care is a right rather than a privilege, and they lead campaigns to end health care disparities for minorities and low-income individuals, fight for affordable prescription drugs, confront language barriers to accessing health care and protect Medicaid funding.
“Our desire really is to promote local activism and grassroots activism,” Bouton said.
The Colorado Progressive Coalition is seeking allies, individuals and other organizations to identify local contacts and activists at the local level. To assist CPC in any way contact Clark Bouton at cbouton@viawest.net or 720-313-5173 or Francoise Mbabazi at francoise@progressivecoalition or 303-866-0908.
— Contact Jesse Chaney at farm@fmtimes.com. |
