Guest Author - Tracey-Kay Caldwell
More Americans are concerned about health care than ever before. The cost of health care keeps rising and as result, more Americans are going without healthcare. When you cant afford to offer health care to your employees, when you are self employed and cant afford to buy a policy for yourself, when you aren’t paid enough to afford the healthcare plan your employer offers, health care suddenly become a real issue for you. Are you a health care voter? Will the candidate’s position on healthcare determine whom you vote for? It so, then the Americans for Health Care Presidential Candidate Shadowing Kit may be just the thing for you.
The kit starts with tips for when you go to a candidate event. The list of tips is great for anyone going to a candidate event. First, identify yourself; wear your “I am a Health Care Voter” sticker or T-shirt. Second, introduce yourself, sign in at the event and introduce yourself to the organizers. Mingle with the crowd and let them know you are there to hear about healthcare. Third, stand at the front, close to where the candidate is speaking. Fourth, listen politely to the candidate’s speech and take notes on what he says about health care. Fifth, ask a health care question, be sure to identify yourself as a healthcare voter when asking the question. Sixth, thank the candidate for answering your health care question. Seventh, congratulate yourself on having represented the forty-six million Americans with no health insurance.
The kit provides a list of suggested question you can ask the candidate. One, will you make health care your top priority? Two, what strategy do you have to pass real health care reform? Three, How would you work to lower heath care costs while protecting high quality patient care? Four, How would you work toward the goal of eventually getting everyone in America covered by health insurance? Five, How would you involve employers in being part of the solution to our nation’s health care crisis? Six, How many people would your health care plan cover? Seven, How would you help small businesses afford health insurance for their employees? Eight, how would you make health care available to part time employees, or those that lose their jobs? Nine, would you work to pass national health care reform? Ten, what are the three biggest problems with the health care system today? Eleven, Many Americans had problems getting their
prescriptions with Medicare Part D, how would you fix that? Twelve, What Do you believe are the minimum standards required in a health care system? Thirteen, what kind of national health care reform do you think is realistic and politically feasible?
The kit goes on to provide answers to question you are likely to be asked and the facts about healthcare today. In 2005, employer health insurance premiums increased by 9.2 percent, nearly three times the rate of inflation. Under an employer health plan, the annual premium for a family of four will cost about $13,382. That is more than many families can afford. Over forty-six million Americans having no health care insurance, and eighty-one percent of those without insurance come from working families. At least eighteen thousand Americans die every year because they cannot afford health insurance.
It is time to make health care an issue in this presidential campaign. The Americans for Health Care Presidential Candidate Shadowing Kit is just the thing to help you do that.
