Health Care Reform and Local Planning in Catalina, Ariz.

For the first time since Harry Truman first proposed it, there is a real possibility for serious health care reform to become law. The health care industry, notably the for-profit insurers, drug companies, hospitals, is fighting change to a system that pays them richly. Around the country people have been organizing to educate their neighbors and fight back so this opportunity for a change of health care priorities is not lost.

President Obama has made changing health care in the country a major part of his plan for long-term economic development. We pay twice as much as any other industrialized country for health care, and our outcomes are poorer. Obama has been using the network of supporters he developed during the campaign to support his agenda. This kick-off meeting was part of that effort.

Saturday evening, June 6, a small group of neighbors in Catalina, a small unincorporated community outside of Tucson, Arizona, met at the home of Rev. Gerry Straatemeier to discuss their personal stories and plan a community event to mobilize the support for change. Similar groups met for this kick-off event all around the country. Some events were larger, but all were working for the same purpose: seeing that any reform to our health care system brings meaningful change to people's lives.

There were six of us, two couples and two other women, myself among the latter. All of us were over 50 years old. Our stories were compelling. Two women had stories of trying to find insurance when they had pre-existing medical conditions. One had gone without coverage for five years because no one would cover her. Another found insurance at a high rate which did not include coverage of her lower digestive tract, where she had had problems in the past.

Two of us had stories of having Medicare see us through times of illness. My personal story involved finding kidney cancer during a CT scan of my chest, which I would not have had without Medicare. I went for many years without insurance, and I knew that my decisions would have been different if I did not know my care would be covered. For both of us telling these stories, Medicare enabled us to make decisions based on medical advice rather than financial considerations. We are both staunch supporters of making a similar public plan available to everyone.

We settled into planning an event for a health care national day of service on June 27. It was difficult to focus on an event loosely concerned with educating our neighbors rather than a political event. The idea is to have an event that will bring people in and be beneficial in itself. Suggested activities included a blood drive, a farmer's market. We left with a plan to have something at our local fire station focused on safety, and tasks to try to involve other community groups.

You can look for events in your community on or around June 27, where you can join this movement for change. We have a chance to effect positive change in American health care, and we can all join to see that we do not miss this opportunity.