Change that Works Virginia held a press conference in Bristol, Virginia, a stone's throw from where the President held his health care town hall. We chose the site because we wanted to show the President support for his health care reform ideals and the town hall for Kroger Grocery employees was a perfect opportunity.

Check out our photos here:

We heard from small business owners who are struggling with the current high cost health care system-- Bristol business owners like Mark Canty, owner of Eatz on Moore Street who talked about how he cannot afford health insurance for his employees and that it hurts hiring and retention. And Meadowville store general manager, Lori Price, who talked about how she has spent the last year trying to find an affordable health care plan for her employees, to no avail. Retiree, Deena Flinchum of Blacksburg spoke about her experiences as a volunteer for the Virginia Medicare Program. All of our speakers had one recurring theme, health care reform must happen today-- our system can not continue as it stands.

Our press conference and the President's visit was met with a paltry presence from a contingent of anti-reform Tea Baggers.

Organizers, local residents, activists and small business owners collectively gathered to let the media know, the "cost of doing nothing on health care is too great." We are urging Congress to maintain the integrity of H.R. 3200, America's Affordable Health Choices Act and pass a bill that assures quality, affordable health care with a public option. Our purpose was to share the struggles small business owners have with providing health care for their employees and to let the media know why the call for reform is so urgent.

This is what some small business owners had to say:

"My employees have all asked me when they might be able to get health care benefits, and it pains me to tell them that we just can't afford it," said Mark Canty, owner of Bristol restaurant Eatz on Moore Street and part of a small business community that makes up 71 percent of Virginia businesses. "It's time for change to come, and to come now."

"Everything has such a high deductible and is so expensive--health care is just not affordable for small businesses. So I have no insurance either; the state says I make too much money to qualify for Medicaid, but I can't afford private health insurance."

Lori Price, General Manager at Meadowview Farmers Guild and Harvest Table Restaurant in Meadowview, VA, told the crowd that she has spent the last year trying to find a health insurance plan to cover her employees.

Over the last decade health care premiums have risen consistently higher than wages, and without affordable health care reform, costs are expected to grow 71 percent in the next decade. Read the Value of Reform report here: Virginia families are already struggling under the burden of high health care costs, and the problem is only getting worse.

"We need to do something now," said Deena Flinchum, a retired Blacksburg resident who now volunteers full-time for programs such as The Virginia Insurance Counseling and Advisement program. "I cannot tell you what an education it was for me when I first agreed to help work on Medicare. I see people all the time who are paying $500 - $700 for their prescription drugs every month, and they are on Medicare."

What can you do in Virginia? Join the Change that Works Virginia activists to campaign for health care reform during the August recess. We must let Congress know that the people of Virginia want a robust health care reform bill that provides for quality care, affordability and a public option is what's best for Virginia. Write your Congress person today and tell them, don't screw with our plan.

President Barack Obama held a health care reform town hall at Northern Virginia Community College, Annandale campus on July 1-- questions were submitted online and from the live audience. Change that Works Virginia team member Sheila Collier--who has been hard at work in the Fairfax area garnering support for the President's health care reform initiative--was granted the honor of asking the last question of the town hall. President Obama was pleased with her question and voiced his health care reform tenets, including his desire for a public option.

You can watch the entire town hall at the White House youtube channel here:

On Friday, SEIU Florida Healthcare nurse Patricia Diaz joined U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and a team of Spanish-speaking Administration officials from DHS and the CDC for a White House Town Hall to listen to the Hispanic community's concerns and discuss the government's safety and prevention plans to control the impact of the H1N1 virus.

"Today was a transformative day for me. I got to attend the White House's first townhall meeting entirely in Spanish. It shows how much our President wants to reach out to everyone and make sure information reaches all communities about the H1N1 virus," said Diaz. Hosted by Univision Anchor Edna Schmidt, parts of the town hall aired to more than 13 million viewers on Univision's national news show.

» Read more about the town hall and SEIU nurse Patricia Diaz's participation here.
» Watch the full video, read the full transcript in Spanish or the President's remarks in English.

Working to Stop Pandemic Threat: Get Resources for Rront-line Workers and Families at Risk

To answer key questions about H1N1 and the swine flu, the SEIU Nurse Alliance Health & Safety Committee prepared facts sheets and an "employer check list" to allow healthcare workers a quick way to assess their worksite's readiness. Read about the differences and similarities between swine flu and seasonal flu, using infection control to prevent spreading the flu in healthcare settings, and get the response plan checklist at SEIU.org.

Change that Works is always looking for new ways to connect Iowans to our lawmakers in Washington. Which is why we were excited when Senator Chuck Grassley announced a tweet-up: a Des Moines town hall-style event for his constituents and followers on Twitter.

Twitter is an online service that lets people use mobile devices to tell their friends what they're up to ­in 140 characters or less.

During the event, Senator Grassley discussed the importance of making our voices heard on Capitol Hill and encouraged his constituents to keep up the communication with his office on issues that matter to us. He said using new forms of communication, like Twitter, is allowing him to hear from an even wider range of constituents on issues.

So how does a U.S. Senator like Grassley end up on Twitter? When asked, Grassley tweeted his reply using classic "tweet-speak":

"alwys wanted to stay at forefront of tech. 1 of the first to use fax."

From the start of faxing to twitter, Grassley is proving his commitment to listening to his constituency-- even if he needs to squeeze his message into 140 characters.

The tweet-up also saw Grassley addressing some serious issues . Here are
some of the notes we took live via Twitter:

"Grassley says next week he and Sen. Baucus will start moving health care reform along."

"Grassley says he wants to help homeowners facing foreclosure if there was no fraud involved."

The event was a great way for us to connect with Senator Grassley. And it proved that, although the technology we communicate with may change, the issues that matter still remain.

>> Follow Change that Works Iowa on Twitter here

>> Follow Senator Grassley on Twitter here

"The true test of this bipartisanship process will be how we handle the details," said Senator Charles E. Grassley, ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, last week in a Mason City, Iowa, health forum including panelists from AARP and SEIU. Speaking about competition between insurance companies, Local 199 member and RN Mary Burke commented, "I think competition would actually be meaningful if we have a public health care system. If you don't have everybody insured, we're still going to have the problem."

Later that day, Sen. Grassley posted on his Twitter account:

Had a v. good mtg in Mason City tlkg health care rfrm. Iowans gve me lts of fdbck. Thanky AARP and SEIU and NFIB.

Read more: http://www.globegazette.com/articles/2009/04/10/news/local/doc49dec7d59480a973355829.txt

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:

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."

At the White House's online town hall yesterday, SEIU nurse Linda Bock thanked President Obama for giving her the opportunity to be heard and offer a front line perspective of the health care crisis. Bock expressed the importance of nurses having a voice in the solution to fix health care, to create a system that puts caregivers in charge of the decisions that affect their patients to ensure the high-quality of care.

The President also had a few words to say, expressing his appreciation for all the hardworking nurses who are there "around the clock" to provide the best care possible for their patients. Calling nurses the backbone of the country's health care system, Obama admitted, "I'm biased towards nurses, I just like nurses." He went on to address the problems facing caregivers in this country today and why we must fix healthcare now.

On March 19, 2009 at Miguel Contreras Learning Complex in LA, Robin Lewis of SEIU Local 721 told President Obama directly how important health care reform is for her son, Kolin, when the President looked for her after his LA town hall.

"He found me after and he came up to me and said 'Now what was your question. I need to know your question,'" Lewis said.

Lewis told him, "I need your help. My son has a cancerous brain tumor and I need some help. The American people need help. We need to reform health care and I want to help you do it." Lewis's 20-year-old son, Kolin, needs regular medical attention as he continues to recover from a brain tumor.

Although Robin Lewis receives family health benefits through her job with the LA County Dept. of Children and Family Services, like hundreds of thousands of young Californians, her son lost his coverage under her plan when he turned 18. The high risk of her son's cancer reoccurring require that he receive continual medical care and MRI's every year--all of which are extremely costly.

Despite a memory disability and enduring months of physical therapy to regain the use of his left side, relearn to walk and dress himself and many other basic functions, Kolin graduated from high school and is now taking classes at Fullerton Junior College each semester. He is currently receiving health coverage through a patchwork of Medi-Cal and other benefits, but he'll lose this coverage when he turns 21. Paying for private insurance for Konlin will cost more than one-third of Lewis' income, and without health care reform she's not sure how they'll get by.

After the town hall, Lewis says "the president got my information and he told me he would help me and I would be in his prayers and that we would fix health insurance."

"It's heartbreaking to not be able to take care of your child's health," said Lewis. "We need to have affordable health care in this country and it shouldn't be dependent on your job or age. I have hope President Obama will keep health care a priority."