Care Over Cost: Organizing People Hurt by Insurers to Win Medicare for All
Session Type(s): Panel
Starts: Saturday, Jul. 15 2:30 PM (Central)
Ends: Saturday, Jul. 15 3:30 PM (Central)
Room: Salon A-3
To win Medicare for All, we need a long-term strategy to defeat our corporate opponents in the healthcare industry. We need to win victories for people harmed by the healthcare industry now, but we must do so in a way that decreases the power and profits of the private health insurance industry while strengthening public programs. In this panel, we’ll discuss a strategy to build power and set the conditions to win Medicare for All, as well as how we can organize people directly impacted by corporate profiteering and grow our movement.
Moderator
Aija Nemer-Aanerud
Aija started organizing as a student leader with The People’s Lobby in Chicago, Illinois over a decade ago. They went on to co-found and direct Student Action, People’s Action’s national student organizing project that built power with college students and young people to win elections, fight for Free College for All, and work towards progressive change. Aija has 13 years of organizing experience, and they currently work at People’s Action directing our Health Care for All campaign, working with affiliates around the country to develop winning strategies that advance our goal of winning tangible victories for the communities we represent.
Panelists
Eva Bell
Community Organizer with Hoosier Action located in Southern Indiana, and Mom of Three. Has lead on fights to Remove work requirements from medicaid, win accommodations for pregnant workers, fought to expand and extend the Child tax credit and fighting for reproductive justice.
Matthew Covington
After completing a year in Americorps doing lead-abatement in Minneapolis and receiving his Masters in Public Policy, Matthew knew he wanted to work with everyday people to push for bold policies that put people before profits and communities before corporations. He joined Iowa CCI in 2007 as a neighborhood organizer, and since then has worked on issues related to predatory lending and banking reform, protecting and expanding Social Security and Medicare, and most recently CCI’s work to get profits out of healthcare.
Callie Gibson
I am an assistant professor of psychology at Drury University in Springfield, MO. I am also the co-director of the women and gender studies minor. I have been a member of Missouri Jobs with Justice for about 4 years now and on the Workers Rights Board Steering Committee. I have been married to Mark Hall for nearly 3 years now. Right around the time of our wedding, Mark’s health insurance refused to cover a drug that had been successfully treating his chronic illness for over 13 years. We began a journey of new medications that didn’t work and are now fighting for the rights of patients to receive treatment at the directive of their doctors rather than their insurance companies.
Ken Whittaker
Ken Whittaker is a native Detroiter who has spent over sixteen years fighting for racial and economic justice for the 99%. Ken has traveled the U.S. training activists and inspiring new leaders. With a strong background in information technology, Ken brings process and procedure to the power building movement. Ken is a long-time community organizer and former Movement Politics Director at Michigan United. For the past ten years, he has played key roles in local political races throughout Detroit, and has worked as a legislative aide in the state legislature. He was previously the state president of the Michigan Young Democrats. Ken also has a background in IT, web design, and computers. Ken has been with the organization in various capacities for 5 years.
mark hall
I have worked IT in a variety of fields, from banking to the USPS to medical care to auto parts. Recently, I have become active in local social justice movements and work – partially as a result of my own personal experience. I have been married to Callie Gibson for nearly 3 years and together, we have begun fighting for the rights of people to receive healthcare from their physicians, rather than through the directives of their insurance.