Health Care in America Hurts

“My son had a union job but got hurt at work,” says Patty from California on the AFL-CIO 2008 Healthcare for America Survey website. “He had knee surgery and he can't straighten his leg. He now has a severe limp…He also has no more job or healthcare…Who will hire him now that he has disabilities and a workman's comp injury. I am so afraid for him. Healthcare would be a blessing but he now has these problems and no healthcare. It is sick.” Patty and over 15,000 other people have participated in the survey. “There’s at a minimum 18,000 people a year who die because they didn’t have health insurance,” Heather Booth – director of the AFL-CIO’s campaign for universal healthcare – told Workers Independent News Thursday. The campaign is working to build a million-person organization of activists to put focus on universal healthcare during the 2008 elections and beyond. Click here to take the survey or read other personal stories.