Thousands of Health Care Workers Stand for Healthcare Reform: Join Us Thursday!

I work every day with home care attendants - workers who support people with disabilities and seniors who live independently at home.  As we come to a climax in our national conversation about how to provide every person with quality, affordable health care coverage, I find myself thinking a lot about home care attendants like the folks covered in this front page story in last week' Philadelphia Weekly.

Brenda McFadden is a home care attendant who supports Joe Pepe, a person with disabilities, outside of Philadelphia.   She helps him get out of bed, eat, shop, and participate in his community life as a disability rights activist.  But she doesn’t have health insurance.  She and Joe are frustrated every day that she is a health care worker who must pay for every doctor' visit and medicine out of her meager wages.

And it' the lack of health insurance that causes 75% of home care attendants to leave their jobs before one year is up.  For home care attendants like Brenda, and the people with disabilities and seniors who depend on a reliable workforce to stay independent, something must change.

Home care attendants like Brenda are joining over three hundred other health care workers and community members from as far away as Erie, Pennsylvania on Thursday June 25th as part of Health Care for America Now' national Washington day of action for quality, affordable health care for everybody.  I am so proud to be accompanying community members, health care workers and their family members to DC on Thursday and to be helping to document their stories (I’ll be the girl with at least 2 cameras and a notepad).

We have two buses leaving from Philadelphia alone, and I promise that if you join us you’ll meet community activists, union members, and allies from all over the country, and learn practical next steps for winning health care reform in our city and across the country.

Sign up to join us on the bus at http://www.seiuhealthcarepa.org.  See you there!

Brenda McFadden, a West Philadelphian home care attendant, with Joseph Pepe, disability rights activist and home care consumer.