The Gray Panthers want to put a face on the uninsured

We are all aware that 50 millon Americans have no access to health care coverage, but for many people that is just a number with no connection to real people.

The fact is 11,000 people a day are joining the ranks of the uninsured as more companies shed health care benefits for employees to compete with the rest of the industrialized word that have universal health care. Since 1998, premiums for employer-sponsored coverage have increased 119 percent, and nearly 9 million workers in large companies with 100 or more employees had no coverage in 2007.

The Gray Panthers want to put a face to those 50 million people, and they are collecting Health Care Horror Stories for a Private Health Insurance Crises Quilt.

The book “Sick: The Untold Story of America's Health Care Crisis — and the People Who Pay the Price” by Michigan author Jonathan Cohn put a face on many of these uninsured. Those include the 55-year-old Cambridge special education teacher who died because she had to be diverted from a hospital ER that was capable of performing a “cardiac catheterization” to one that was not quaffed to perform it because the ER was overflowing.

Or the aeronautical engineer in California who lost his wife to aggressive cancer because had no health insurance after he was re-hired at his old company after a layoff because he was a “contract” employee. Or the retiree from a meatpacking plant who lost his health care because the company dropped it for retires to be able to compete. Or the small business owner who could not get health coverage because she had diabetes and fell victim to a scam. Or the person who paid premiums for years, but her policy was canceled when she finally needed to use it.

That’s just a small sample. I’m sure everyone knows someone in that boat.

The Grey Panthers wants to hear from you and your neighbors, friends and family.

So, here’s what they need:

1. Send your photo, approximately 8" x 10" that shows your face.
2. A brief story in large print - 1/2 inch if possible- on a sheet of paper about
8" wide, 6" high about private Insurance abuse and denial.
3. Caption in LARGE print - bright magic marker like-"Policy Canceled When I Got Cancer"

By providing the Grey Panthers with this information, you are giving them authorization to use your photo and story for public use. They would like to be able to use your name, so if you sign your story with your name, your name will be added to the quilt. If you choose to remain anonymous, sign your story "Anonymous."

Please mail the information by September 3, 2009 to:

Beverly Hummel
6213 Dahlonega Road
Bethesda. MD 20816

The Grey Panthers are a national organization with local chapters of activists of all ages dedicated to social change. They work to make America a better place to live for the young, the old and everyone-in-between. They address peace, health care, jobs, housing and lots of other concerns to citizens.

Social justice group addresses CEO pay

Working in a legislative office, I get to peruse the mail that comes through the office, and there is a lot of it. I had the privilege recently to discover the monthly newsletter from a group called “Gray Panthers of Huron Valley.”

It was filled with lots of useful and interesting information on global warming, environmental information, union membership, the Iraq occupation and Michigan prisons.

I thought it was a group of retirees, but after doing some research I found out I was wrong. Basically, it’s a national organization of activists of all ages dedicated to social change. They work to make America a better place to live for the young, the old and everyone-in-between. They address peace, health care, jobs, housing and lots of other concerns to citizens.

The organization was established in 1970 by Maggie Kuhn when a group of five friends that had recently retired from national religious and social work organizations met to address the common problems faced by retirees — loss of income, loss of contact with associates and loss of one of our society's most distinguishing social roles, one's job. The group also discovered they had the time and energy to address some of society’s most pressing problems of the day, and in 1970 that was the conflict in Vietnam.

The current newsletter had some excellent information on union membership and wages that was worth sharing. Less than 30 percent of the country's autoworkers that helped create the middle class in this country are unionized. Workers that dare try to unionize the auto parts suppliers and do better than the $10 an hour and few benefits are fired and harassed, and in one shop workers had to sue just to get paid for all the hours they worked.

The piece quotes Pulitzer Prize-winning national columnist Ellen Goodman, who pointed out that political scientists blame this on the “personal responsibility crusade of conservatives that say we need to take ownership of our economic future and personal responsibility for our lives,” but it ignores the basic America core values of fairness and caring for the vulnerable that we should insure each other against the unforeseen effects of a sudden illness, unemployment and old age.

CEO compensation is a prefect example of the problem. In 1965 the average CEO was earning 24 times what the average worker was making. But in 2005, the average CEO was making 262 times what the average worker is making. The CEO of Home Depot made $38 million, or roughly $100,000 a day, in 2005, but the average worker who is selling the product and is the public face of the company is making just $10 an hour on average with few if any benefits. The CEO continues to make this outrageous salary despite the company’s stock going down 6 percent in six years. To me, that’s just an amazing stat.

I could not find an e-mail address for the Gray Panthers of Huron Valley, but their mailing address is 3470 Carpenter Rd #211, Ypsilanti, Mi. 48197. I urge anyone interested in social justice to join.