A job just to pay for health care

by Matthew Fitting—Virginia

As soon as I said that we were organizing in his neighborhood for better health care, the man at the door raised his eyebrows. Turns out, the issue had been constantly on his mind because of his family. The way he said it, I figured we were talking about two or even three kids, but he and his wife had only recently had their first son.

Still, this meant sacrifices. His wife had to take a job with evening hours—he does landscaping during the day—solely to pay for their child’s health care. The costs, he said, were just killing them.

After signing as a member, he also signed a band-aid petition, meant to put a spotlight on the depth of the health care crisis in America. I also suggested he take a look at the AFL-CIO’s online health care survey. Hopefully he can tell his story to other people, too.

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