At the April 7th Health Care Town Hall, over a hundred community members gathered to share their hopes and concerns for health care reform with Representative Paul Hodes.
Pauline Chabot, a Sanborton resident and Change That Works activist, described a scenario that is, unfortunately, too familiar for many New Hampshire residents:
It seems very unfair that someone who is working so hard to stay afloat has to put so much money into a health care plan that doesn't even meet all of his family's needs....So my question is: why now? Why are you saying that this is the year that health care reform will happen, and how will that help the average New Hampshire family's pocketbook?"
Pauline was not the only one with a story of health-care related hardship. Sponsored by NH Citizens Alliance for Action, New Hampshire Change That Works, Granite State Progress, Working Families Win and the NH Health Care for America Now, people from every corner of the community asked questions, and shared their experiences with our broken health care system.
Pauline's story was echoed by other attendees, such as that of Lucinda McQueen of Warner, NH. Although Lucinda and her husband don't smoke, don't drink, and have no pre-existing health conditions, they pay almost $1,000 a month, nearly 25% of their annual income, for heath plan with no preventative care and a $10,000 deductible. If there is one thing the Town Hall made apparent, it's that throughout New Hampshire, hard working citizens are all struggling within the same flawed system.
Rep. Hodes acknowledged the huge gap in accessing health care between those at the top, and the rest of New Hampshire's citizens, "Right now, those who are wealthy can afford great health care. Those who are not, can't. That's why we're here, that's why we're talking about it...That family needs to have enough access to care early on so we don't spend gadzillions of dollars in whatever system we have at the end and when they're chronically ill."
Throughout the evening, Rep. Hodes emphasized the importance of ensuring that everyone has access to quality, affordable care: "The goal here is to get everybody covered," Rep. Hodes said. "We simply can't afford not to do it. The cost to our society, to those we love, is too great."
