board members and she has been an advocate for health care system that serves us all and health care is a human right for many years in this state she is down in bennington vermont and she is a veteran receives health care justice organizer and for the past several months we've been really organizing around the principle the founding print the foundational principle i think that we're all driving  is to win here in vermont and eventually across the country health care as a human right and public good delivered to every person every human being regardless of ability of to pay the apollo a publicly and equitably financed system and health care being a fundamental right is a principle most other countries whether industrialized or not  actually enshrined in uphold and accept and the us is very very behind on that front i think mary would probably agree she's human rights lawyer and has done a lot of work in that arena  and so here in vermont we believe that we have a law on the books that in trying fact principle and it's the only way achieving that is really the only way that we're going to ensure that the patients i see every week mostly patients who are dependent on medicaid and medicare mostly older folks get the high quality health care that they need because i encounter a lot of people in my work and in my conversations as an organizer with friends in among crecy who have to make choices every day between things like medication and groceries going to the doctor and you know having a rider transportation to work and these are choices that in a healthy thriving egalitarian society no one should have to make and so we have rights and democracy are sort of fighting on two levels were resisting very very vigorously the national republican agenda to dismantle health care to fundamentally restructure medica as we know oh it to the great detriment of poor and working people in this country and also let's remember that medicaid is not just a program for the poor it's a program for all of us it's the biggest pair of long term care which most of us either ourselves or one of our loved ones will eventually need long term care or nursing home care for older folks that need a higher level of care and can't be taken care of in their home in their older age  medicaid pays for that medicaid pays for almost half of all births in this country it pays for a tremendous amount of women's health so these are fundamentally crucial programs for huge swaths of the population and they're under attack by the republican administration which also wants to roll back many of the gains made under the affordable care act which we all know wasn't perfect but also at the same time made many improvements to a sort of cowboy capitalist health care system in which preexisting conditions barred people from getting the care they need prior to the protections and trying to a cia so at the national level with and i had toward what has been happening coming out of congress we have rights democracy or organizing people to resist cuts to medicaid any attempts to voucher ised medicare and rollback and or repeal of or destabilization of the a cia because that would have tremendous fall out for monitors and millions of people across this country and at the same time because of the very cuts that are being proposed nationally we feel that here in vermont to protect vermonters from these grave threats we really need to move ahead with universally universal her care that is equitably and publicly financed as laid out in at forty and we have members organizing across the state to get there there are different paths there's something called universal care that would provide primary care mental health and addition treatment services free of charge to all vermonters that's a bill in the state house that may be one step in in the right direction to get a stack forty eight but regardless of what legislative path we alternately take we know that at the end of the day vermonters they have a big appetite and are ready for a health care system that serves us all and i think mary can speak more specifically to act forty eight if you have further the doctor would like the car and they're going to be paid i wouldn't have to pay to keep it act or i can't have my pocket i wouldn't have to pay deductible i wouldn't have to pay deal every time going to be much much less than what you are currently paying one in terms of premium and you won't have to pay the insurance premium therefore even though it an much for that and i would also just add that i think it's you know mary makes a good point that people get really scared and nervous for understandable reasons when we talk about progressive taxation or any kind of taxes right it's such a taboo word the idea that we would pay higher taxes for anything but i think we also have to remember that you know i think why we're so fearful of taxation in this country is because unfortunately our government at the state and federal level has been so leached and sapped and and drained of resources over many decades decades under a very you know of a very planned out agenda of the conservative and and right wing in this country to you know threat of undermine the role of government what americans are used to getting much from their taxes right because it's sort of like this vicious cycle where we don't fund and provide enough revenue to our government agencies and then as a result they aren't able to provide as much as they otherwise would be able to if they were adequately adequately funded and the net result is people feel like the government doesn't do anything for them so it's completely understandable that a lot of folks i don't feel like they are they just see money going out of their paycheck every week and not getting anything returned and i think we see at rights and democracy believe that we really have to start reframing things around what are our priorities as communities and what is it and mean to invest because in other countries that have national health care system they generally have much higher tax rates but they get so much in return as mary mentioned right they don't have to worry about paying astronomical premiums and having huge deductibles that make it virtually impossible to go to the doctors basically you know and  they have better infrastructure and they have free virtually free relative to us higher education they get all these things for what is taken out from their taxes and so i think we need to remember that seeing our taxes go up it's not like that money's going out into the ether if we had ak forty eight it would be an investment in all of our collective health and well being and we'd see something tremendous in return and we'd be able to moan much more robustly tackle things like the opiate epidemic and the the crisis of substance abuse in this state which is ravaging many communities would be able to  invest in mental health which is woefully overstretched and inadequate currently in vermont and so i think we need to fundamentally sort of change and shift how we think about taxation and recognize that that's actually how we invest in our communities and improve the quality of life improve people's quality of life especially the quality of life of of poor and working and middle class families in this  y and so i don't know about you but i have in my conversations with many of my patients with people throughout this people are ready to chip in a little bit more if it means that they you know are able to access going to the doctor if it means that you know their neighbor who is a diabetic is actually able to pay for their insulin and doesn't have to wait until you know they're in the emergency room having because they're big have a massive diabetic foot infection and now you need astronomically expensive hospital level care to get their toes amputated that to me is not the types of communities we want to live in we want to live in communities that invest in keeping us healthy and keeping us out of the hospital in keeping us you know working and well and thriving and so i think mary would agree that that we're all willing to pay a little bit more to create the type of robust government services that that you know build strong vibrant healthy communities for us now and in the future and i think that applies to the range of issues that rights and democracy is fighting for whether it be health care or things that we need to address you know just as imminently like a crime a climate crisis mary anything to add i know that one that w and and to get us there because i always i'm an organizer and so i want to talk about a little bit how we can get there how can we get full implementation back forty eight right in the mockers the feels that it's really important you know we're called right to mock received we believe in winning the recognition and the full you know vigorous implementation of all our rights our rights to health care our rights to a clean water clean environment an equitable economy that works for us all we want to win those rights and see every person in vermont you know having them in a very full way and the way we get there is vermonters back into our democracy which we know at the national level and even here in vermont to some extent has been hijacked by corporate well money to private interests that  true you know no essentially no campaign finance laws that are really strong in this country have allowed have been a sort of take it over our political system and have undue influence and so we want to return them ocracy into the hands of of vermonters of people and so we believe that to win any of these fights for ak forty eight for universal primary care for for a health care system that works for us all we need people in the state house to be standing with us and the only way we can do that is mobilize thousands of vermonters to stand up and say to their elected leaders hey these are our priorities these are  concerns these are what this is what we're seeing in our communities and you know you represent us and you need to fight for us and so we have this wonderful i am a health care justice voter sign on card which people are basically signing up saying that they believe that health care is a human right they believe in the full employment act forty eight which is current law should be fully implemented and things like universal primary care should be passed they believe that our governor and other elected officials should stand up which which governor scott to his credit has recently done but need to continue to do and needs to work with us to he's he stood up against the  p in congress congressional g o p s health care bill to his credit scott has done that and we need to him to continue to stand with us as we move ahead towards things like ak forty eight and the way we show  officials because the one thing we know politicians respond to is votes and at rights and democracy we are going to only support candidates that are standing up very strongly for health care that is publicly and equitably financed and serves us all and if they're not going to stand up for that then we are going to train candidates and run candidates who will and so if you're interested in this work please go to ri brad or sign up to be a healthcare justice for boehner you can share your story with us if you have a health care story we'd love to hear from you would love to talk to you but you know especially with the new legislative session starting with the elections in twenty teen you know if for monitors really want to see things change they need to get involved they need to you know claim their seat as as voters as as people that have a voice in the democratic process and we want to help them do so and really take back the state house which is our house and which should be a place where we're moving forward with legislation that really helps us all when things like universal health care when things like more equitable economy through things like raising the minimum wage and you know other really important initiatives to working and middle class families impossible that's a vicious cycle and you know you always hear a we can't do that we can't we can't move that far we can't be that bold vermonters across the board who we talked to you are ready for bold action and to be honest a lot of my patients for whom health care is a life and death issue you can't really afford for us to go with half measures or you know wait and feel out what's going to happen from the federal level it is time for our legislators it's time for our governor to take bold action to build again safe equitable healthy thriving communities here in the state obviously we're talking about having our government finally so when we talk about it being accountable to us we're really talking about two things we're talking about it being able to each individual in need and we're often talking just what can you talk to us personally present and tell us what we can do now in this time frame yes so that is the most important question and again i would say our first step is to check out right to democracy and our work and sign up to be a health care justice voter because it's really important that we get tremendous numbers of people sort of standing up and demonstrating that they believe in health care as a human right they believe for monch and move ahead with building a health care system that delivers health care as a right and as a public good equitably to us all and so  dot org you can sign up to be a health care justice voter we also need people to share their stories we're finding that the most moving and compelling thing by far i could rattle off a lot of statistics about the costs of our current broken health care system and you know negative health outcomes and weight is other countries in europe and in cannes and also canada and even even some you know developing nations that have universal health care are seeing better health outcomes and cost controls that can be a little abstract to people for understandable reasons what not but what is not a strapped and what feels very real to people is you know their personal experiences with our health care system not being able to get the care they need having loved ones that you know have foregone needed medical care because they couldn't afford it or they were scared that you know they were going to get hit by bills or they hadn't reached their deductible yet so they didn't want to go to the primary care doctor to get something checked out and then it turned into a much more serious illness that landed them in the hospital and you know those kind of stories really resonate with people it's the stories i encounter on a weekly basis as a nurse and it's the stories i encounter as i you know do organizing we're just talking to folks in burlington and throughout the state and we really need to hear those stories  elected officials need to hear those stories because we need to really make people aware and educate folks that you know the way things are currently is is no longer acceptable and hasn't been acceptable for many years and it's finally time for us to move on and create something better and ensure that you know our health care system is driven by the needs  and the goal of achieving the best quality of life for people versus you know the bottom line of for profit pharmaceutical industry the the for profit pharmaceutical industry private insurance medicine medical device manufacturers you know that's not as a nurse that is not what health is about health is about giving people the medical care they need when how and where they need it and not worrying about whether you know an insurance company is going to see their profit margins rise and so you know sign up to be a health care justice voter share your story you can also do that at rates in the mockers the talk to your neighbors talk to your elected officials if you have a health care story call up your state senator call up your your house arrest share these stories with them and you know that's what we need on mass collectively starting to talk about publicly write a letter to the editor you know in your in your local paper in on a blog whatever it is whatever you can do to start you know raising awareness getting at is connecting in your community around the issues that you care about and i will encourage you to do that whether it's health care whether it's environmental justice racial gender whatever justice causes that you feel strongly about you know things only you thank you for taking the time for us to share this this important