Health-care rally to kick off march to Washington

Published: February 17, 2010
Inquirer

By Tom Avril

A coalition of activists seeking affordable health care plans to hold a rally at noon today in Philadelphia, followed by the first leg of an eight-day march to Washington.

The event has been dubbed "March to the Finish Line for Melanie," after Melanie Shouse, a Missouri activist who died of breast cancer Jan. 30 at age 41, after plans for the Philadelphia-to-Washington event were already under way.

A small-business owner, Shouse could afford only bare-bones insurance coverage. When she felt a lump in her breast, she opted to delay having it checked for several years, as the combination of her deductible and co-payments approached $10,000, according to her testimony at a town-hall meeting last year.

Organizers expect several hundred supporters at today's rally at Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church, in the 400 block of South Sixth Street.

About a dozen marchers are expected to walk the entire 135 miles to Washington. Others will join at various events and rallies along the way, said Antoinette Kraus, an organizer with Philadelphia Unemployment Project, one of the groups in the coalition. Other members include churches, Health Care For America NOW!, and the Service Employees International Union.

The coalition currently supports the Senate version of the health-care bill, as members feel it has the best chance of being made into law, but they want to amend it to make coverage more affordable.

Numerous marchers say they have had personal experience with insurance anxiety. Kraus said that her parents have insurance through her father's job at a technology company but that the employer recently has been laying people off. In the event that he, too, is laid off, Kraus' mother fears not being able to purchase new insurance because she suffers from epilepsy.

"We wanted to be able to send a clear message to Congress that regular people are suffering every day, and we can't pay attention to the lobbyists," Kraus said.