 Abled In An Air, major sponsorship was given by Green Mountain Support Services, empowering neighbors with disabilities to be home in the community. Also sponsorship was given by Washington County Mental Health Services, where hope and support come together, and Champlain Community Services of Vermont. So when we're getting ready to start, if you guys could go grab those two banners, eat the march with them, get right up here so everyone else can get behind you and make a road of go. Is that going good? Formation. Cool. Just like in the park. Just like in the park. Don't talk to him. Get in my board. Yeah, except for, you know, positive and powerful and... Get in my board. Yeah. That's the kind of board I know your husband has. But you have it. If we can do it, you'll get the one. Awesome. That's great. And then can anybody order to bring them out just for people that are helping out to be able to eat a little something? There's bananas too, maybe cut them in half or cut them in half? Yeah, yeah. Go for it. Yeah, they're in the church. Yeah, I would agree. That's good. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. I almost... He's got an apple on his shirt. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. We're going somewhere. Hi. We're great guys. We're going another direction. Yep, it's going to be a... Baby's for change. Yeah. Sign... Hold the hope to sign up, please. Throw this first, then it came out. Sure, did we see you here for the last one? She was not. No, yeah. Hey, my friend. How are you? Good, how you doing? Good to see you. Good to see you. Yep. What's that sign say? Hey, Donna. Can you hold one of those up? Yeah, you're perfect. Yeah. That hole's actually great. Okay. Yeah, have you just put the pressure on it? Oh, not me. I'm getting a video. Oh, hold on. Someone's driving this today? Yeah. Are you sure? Are you sure? Yeah, hold on there. You don't want to get your pants? I know. You're putting wheels on this, correct? No, no, this is just going to be a little elevator for people to stand up on. How's that? Okay, yeah. A stage? Yeah. It doesn't really make shift stage. Yeah, make shift stage. Exactly. Perfect. Okay, should we try it out? Yeah. Let's come get a stage. Well, you know, we're across the routes. I don't waste money on stages. You think everyone's going to be able to hear us? Yep. You're not saying anything? They said, beside me, you know, you're not going to be able to hear us? No, you're not going to be able to hear us. I know. I know. I know. I'm like, you know, I was just wondering. I was just wondering. I don't talk about it. I only take them when I need to take them. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. You know you're not going to be able to hear us? You know what they did to me when they took me to Wellington? They gave me nitro glycerin. And then they had it waited a while, and then they gave me an aspirin on top of that. Here we go. You got it on. Get it on. You got it on. My heart is racing. Yeah, exactly. It's exciting. Right, yes. That's why they gave me one of the aspirin. They would have taken it out of me. They would have taken it out of me. They would have taken it out of me. What? I don't have the gel. I have. Take it out there. Do you need it? We'll have taken it to the main thing, keeping calm and de-escalating. You got people like, hey, how you doing? Yeah, good to see you. I don't want to get burnt. I got tan, my tan. I don't burn. I don't know a good day for me at T-Match. I have to pee. I had to pee. My girlfriend and her husband. The water was beautiful. Oh, it was beautiful. I need to get out of here. I don't want another one. I can do that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can do it. Oh, yeah, I can do it. I just don't want to. Okay. He's run out to me. Oh, very sad. It's a good state trap, but I was spending more time running around where people were overruling people. He's stuck it out. Right behind you. He's getting food. Okay, all I need is a cup. Right. It's impressive. Early reading specialist support. And I basically I worked for the lawyer. It's good. It's pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, did you? Oh, that's not fun. Grants. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I see it. It's my neighbor. What's your neighbor's name? I miss him. I do. I like the person. We have different people. So it's good to get food. Just for food. I had to choose white paper. Just lick your lips. I get that. The habit of licking my lips to him. Abel, Luna, A-B-E-L, I'm with Migrant Justice, which is an organization that fights for the human rights of migrant farm workers in the dairy farms in Vermont and we're basically here today to support the Medicaid. It's really important that everybody has the right and the access to medical support. As migrant farm workers basically we're not covered under anything pretty much and we're sort of exposed to that reality. In your opinion, why do you think the main reason is that migrant farm workers aren't covered for medical use? Well it's due to discrimination basically laws that go back into the 1930s and we're excluded basically from every single right, right to organize, right to access to healthcare, you know, but these are the people that are sort of milting cows and sustaining the dairy industry and the famous branch of Vermont, you know, so you know it's insane that you know or you know that in 2019 you know migrant farm workers are not included basically under anything. If there's one thing that you could tell Donald Trump or our co-administration about covering people with dairy migrant farm workers or people with special needs of both medical care. What's one thing you can tell the administration? That you know we are it's really important everybody you know has the right to medical care, the right to medical support and attention and healthcare is a human right and everybody deserves that regardless of where you are, who you are, you know, what color you are, you know health is a universal thing and we all need it, so you know. Oh it's hard, can I read it out loud? Hold on, hold on, let's give it to the light. Do you want it brighter or less bright? No, it's just too fuzzy. Too fuzzy. Yeah. Would you like it red quickly? Yeah, sure. Alright. These are the countries, if you can say your name. Michel Cadet. Spell that. M-I-C-H-E-L-K-A-B-S-N-B-R-V-O-A-Y. Salute Michel. Salute. Okay, go ahead. Here are countries with universal healthcare. Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Bhutan, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Burkina Faso, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, England, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guernsey or Jersey, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Ireland, Isle of Man, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Macau, Maldives, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Norway, People's Republic of China, Peru, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Scotland, Serbia, Seychelles, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, the Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Wales, but not the United States of America. You want an analysis of the corruption of our democratic system through Citizens United and the concerted efforts of profit-making organizations to violate human rights for the profit of a tiny minority that is increasingly owning the majority of resources in this country, a minority, a plutocracy that pays representatives to violate the human rights of citizens, to break laws for the profit at the expense of workers and ordinary people. This is a state of victimization, not a democracy. Hi, I'm Diane Richardson, D-I-A-N-N-E, Richard Sun. I think you know how to spell that. R-I-C-N-S. H-A-R-D-S-O-N. Okay. And tell me why you're here today. So I'm here because I feel that not being insured is a life-threatening situation. In 1996, I was 41 years old, and I hadn't been insured since I was a child. And I- You're not insured now? I wasn't insured. And I learned about V-HAP, and I signed up, and I got V-HAP. And I decided that since I had insurance, I wanted to have my first ever full physical. So I- I am Medicare girl. Found a doctor. Excuse me, I'm in a little interview. So I found a doctor, and I had this, you know, she was interviewing me and asking me all these questions. And it was determined by her that I should be taking pictures. Keep going, girl. It was determined that I should, or she said that I should have a colonoscopy. Because my mother had died of colon cancer. My sister had breast cancer at that time, and I was at a high risk of getting it. So, and because of some problems that I was having, she wanted me to have a test. So she referred me for a colonoscopy, but she said if your insurance doesn't pay for it, I'd recommend that you save up for it. Well, I knew there was no way that I could save up for it. Because colonoscopies back then were over $1,000. I'm interviewing the kids. Don't walk in the end. She had figured that out. So, and so I scheduled the colonoscopy, and I went and I found out I did have colon cancer. They were really astonished that I had it, because I was only 41. But now I've heard of teenagers getting colon cancer too. So it's not that uncommon at an early age anymore. So I know that I wouldn't have had the test if I hadn't had insurance. And I probably, it probably wouldn't have been discovered until it was out of control. So I'm really grateful that I was insured and that I'm still insured. And I've made sure that I've been insured for the rest of this time, because I feel that, like I said before, being uninsured is life-threatening. So I want everyone to have... The long and short of it. The reason for this today is... I want everyone to have health care. And I feel like single payer health care is the way to go. That's the only way to ensure that everyone can have it. So, state your name and spelling please. So my name is Earl Coopercamp, E-A-R-L-K-O-O-P-E-R-K-A-M-P. I'm the pastor of the Church of the Good, Shephard and Barry. And happy to be here at the Medicaid march here in Barry today, because as the sign says over there, health care is a human right. And I know the workers' center has been doing a good campaign on Medicaid for a number of years now, working on health care for a number of years. I was up at the Medicaid march last summer up at St. John's Berry, and it was a really good thing to see so many people coming out. And really, really glad to see so many people coming out of my own community at Barry. So I think health care is a human right, is the message we got to get through today. Well, people with special needs, well in general, especially around this nation, what's one message that you can talk about real quick about the importance of good health care, not having it or not being insured? Well, the importance of it is that everybody's got needs, and we all even have special needs as well. But some of us have little more needs than others. And so we all need to learn to stand together to support each other through this. And that's what a march like today does. And I think when we do that, we can make sure that nobody's left behind. Everybody's moving forward, living their life to the fullest potential. And that's what's so important about having access to good quality health care, affordable health care. And we know we can do that in this country because some people got a lot more than they need. But if we begin to share and make sure come together as a community, come together as a country, we can make sure that everybody is going to have everything that they need to live a full life. My name is Tebbia, T-E-V-Y-E, Kelman, K-E-L-M-A-N. I'm just me. I'm a member of the Washington County Organizing Committee, Washington County Organizing Committee of the Workers' Center. Explain to me real quick what the Workers' Center does and why we need to do it. So the Workers' Center is an organization of poor and working people who are coming together to fight for our rights and to organize. Today we're here because we want to protect Medicaid against cuts that have been coming from the federal government and state government, and we also want to lift up people on Medicaid because we know that we're the most vulnerable people in the health care crisis. But we're also trying to bring together everybody, whether or not you're on Medicaid, whether you are on Medicare, whether you are uninsured, whether you're buying private insurance, whether you get it through work. We believe it's a human right, and so that's why we're out here today, is to call for the people of Barrier, the people of Vermont to get together and get what's ours, right, which is a universal publicly financed health care system. We have, if you could also come on up, corralling the cats. All right, everybody, we need the folks in our Washington County crew to come on up and grab this big banner. You're going to be right at the front of our march. If anyone else who can hear me, y'all are going to start coming in and filtering in behind this big banner. Everyone else that's here that's joining our march today, you're going to be lining up right here in the parking lot. Formation ready to take the streak. And the trees, come on in. Come on, get your sun for the day. Get lined up here behind the Washington County crew. The assistant of the vice, and you're walking with us. You are setting the pace today. All right, we're walking behind you, and you're going to be right up here at the front with us. Thank you for coming out. That's so awesome. We want you to set the pace so that we don't leave anybody behind. And everyone's getting lined up. Introduce yourself to your neighbor if you don't know them yet. You have one, and you want one. Grab a sign, grab a banner. Grab a holiday to get yourself loud. Take a left here on Seminary Street. And we're going to go down to the stop sign to Main Street. Take a left and go down Main Street to City Hall Park, where we're going to wind up with a rally and some delicious food, and a whole lot of partying. We're marching today because healthcare is a human right. We're not invisible, and that the people who've been kicked around the longest are here to say, no, if you have some kind of accident or emergency or anything going on, then let people know you're here. There we go. Take a look around. So if anybody needs some medical assistance, please look out for those folks. Marshals. We have a crew of awesome marshals here today who are in yellow vests, and they're going to be helping lead us. Let us know where we're going. Song leaders and chant leaders are here with us today. They're over here. We've got Avery and a whole crew of everybody. The bathrooms are here. We're also going to have bathrooms down at the other end at the church of the Good Shepherd. Let the people in front set the pace, and we're going to stay somewhat spread out, right, so that we can see each other and we can be seen. So don't crowd up on each other. Try and keep a nice pace. And it's going to be leisurely. We're going to dance in the street, all right? Give us a little welcome. I had the privilege of being the pastor here at the Presbyterian Church for a number of years, and one of the great joys that we have here is that we get to host the Vermont Workers' Center and all the good work that they do right here in Barry, which is home to a lot of community organizing and solidarity work over many, many years. So it's a joy to have you all here. As we're out here on this sunny, warm day, I've been reminded of a couple of friends of mine through Vermont Interfaith Action that I'm a part of. We partner with the Vermont Workers' Center. A couple of VIA folks were traveling in the sunny, warm African country of Morocco. And while they were traveling around Morocco, they learned about a lot of the challenges that folks face in Morocco, things like illiteracy, things like poverty, things that keep people down for too long. And they had a guide whose name was Hamad who was leading them around Morocco. And as they were face to face with a lot of the poverty in that community, they were asked, they asked Hamad, what do people do when they need health care? And you know what Hamad said in this developing country? He said that in Morocco, we provide health care for every single citizen of our country. So they asked him, well, how do you do it? And they said, well, we make it happen because our holy book tells us that we must do it. So then Hamad asked my friends, Mary Beth and Tom, if there was universal health care in this country, the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the world, and you know what they answered, right? Is there universal health care? No! Which is a problem. And it's not only a problem, it's a shame. And it's not only a shame, it is an immoral reality of the country in which we live. Because as Eliza just reminded us and taught us to chant, health care is a... Human right! Health care is a... Human right! Health care is a... Human right! Serendipitously, I've just been handed a list of some 72 countries around the world that have universal health care. Let me see if the United States is on it. I don't see it anywhere on the list of 72. Shame! It's a shame. So, as Martin Luther King reminded us, the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice. And the work for universal health care, although it might be long, it bends toward justice and truth in what is right. So I urge you and remind you to continue to work for it and hope for it and believe it, for it will happen. Health care is a... Human right! Health care is a... Human right! I'm gonna hand it over to the Solidarity Singers, Heidi and Avery, who can get us rockin'. This is a call and response. All together in this fight. All together, health care is a... Human right! Health... All together and goes no hurdles, no cuts, ands or buts. Try it. No hurt goes like this. No hurdles, no cut... Call and response one. This one speaks to why we're marching. You know, one day there'll be a day where we'll have to march. But as long as there's injustice, as long as we're still fighting for health care, we're gonna march. So this one's call and response. I'll sing it and you can sing it after me. Then day's gonna come when I won't march no more. Then day's gonna come when I won't march no more. Then it's the same word with a different melody. Then day's gonna come when I won't march no more. Then day's gonna... My sibling ain't equal and the people are my sibling. And in hand with my family we will fill these streets and march no more. Then day's gonna... Marching today to protect health care system that treats health care as a human right and a public good. My name is Amy Lester and I'm a proud member of the Vermont Worker Center. I joined this campaign in 2008. I was marching around this very park. The Barry teachers went on strike around health care costs. And guess what? Things have gotten worse. Teachers are getting asked to pay more. A lot of civil servants are getting asked to pay more. Tax payers have to pay more. And I'm still fighting this fight because my dad went into a hospital and he did not leave. He died a year ago. And my siblings and I got a $16,000 bill. He had Medicare. He had supplemental insurance. And I got a $16,000 bill for a man that's dead. So who's in? We're in. Who's in? I just want to let you know that we have some folks that are going to speak. No, no, you don't have to bring them in. And I'm going to invite them to come up. So let's move the banner, guys. We have some folks that are going to share stories. And I appreciate you giving us a little bit of time and attention for this. And we appreciate their bravery. We got a crowd. Awesome. It took me a long time to get a doctor. I'm here marching for Medicaid. Sometimes I can't configure it in my budget with being a slave. My children and I are marching today. And I'm a homeless person. I stay at the Good Samaritan, which is awesome. I think it's very essential for people like me to have Medicare or Medicaid. Now, I moved to Vermont from Arizona in November. And I love the people here. They're awesome. So much nicer than Arizona. Now, it took me two months when I got here to get on Medicaid. It was very rough for me. I have a heart condition. I was born with a heart condition. Unfortunately, I didn't find out until I turned to 48 years old. Now, I have a defibrillator, which they stuck in my chest, so I have to be monitored every three months. It took me a couple months to get Medicare, so that was kind of, you know, kind of airy. Now, without my Medicaid, I would not be able to have my defibrillator checked every three months. And that is the reason why I fight for Medicaid. With patients about what it would cost. With EMT, I have pleaded with patients in potentially life-threatening emergencies to agree to seek care for the same reason. I have loved ones that I would give my life for, but there is absolutely nothing I can do to get their insurance companies to cover many necessary expenses, like mental health resources. When those resources aren't considered profitable enough and therefore are not prioritized, not funded, and as a result, not available. I are walking dollar signs to the people that profit off of our current system. And I, for one, refuse to accept that politicians and billionaires have the right to tell me that my life and the lives of the people that I love are worth the risk to their profit. My mother was on Medicaid. She was a bad diabetic. Very bad diabetic. Now, I have diabetes. It's not quite as bad as hers, but I wouldn't be able to afford my anti-diabetic medication or anything else if it wasn't for Medicaid. So that's why I'm marching for Medicaid and to make sure people that really need it get it and it expands. Hi, Thompson. I'm from East Having. I received my ex-husband's Cadillac insurance. And without Dr. Dinosaur, I'd never be able to meet my children's healthcare needs. I have a son with ADHD that requires daily medication and monthly doctor visits combined with therapy. My children's right to adequate healthcare is why I'm marching for Medicaid. Oh, it's dropping. More and more things that used to cover are not covered now. I can go to the eye doctor, but they don't have covered eyeglasses. I paid $300 for these. Dental coverage is only $500 a year. For school and for work, Medicaid is really important because if you have an accident outside of work or anyone has an accident outside of work, you will have the medical support. You don't have to pay that much money when you go to see a doctor. This will help me and my fellow co-workers because instead of spending so much money, I will use that for things that I need. I will choose between my family and my health. We all have to pay for everything in our pocket. This is something wrong because if you don't work and for a long time, this is hard for the family and the family needs one because health is a human right. We're all drawn to having an accident inside of work or outside of the work. In many cases, if there's no workers come, many people don't have workers come. This means that we have to pay money out of our own pockets. This is bad because our family suffers because they depend on you. So I truly believe that health is a human right. We're a very proud teacher. Can I have all the teachers in the audience raise their hands right now? We struggle for healthcare for all. Each of us trying to be healthy puts profit over health, the injustice of that dire situation in which we've heard other community members sharing their stories. We can't pay our high deductibles and bills are sent to collectors. Bills that are supposed to pay for our healthcare. This is not for the well-being of our communities. As teachers and support staff, we love the young people under our care. Any cuts to Medicaid, small or large, harms our students' learning, which directly impacts our teaching conditions. Scott has engaged in a blame the teacher's rhetoric. He is pitting teachers and support staff against their communities to try to justify making cuts to education. If the underlying root of the problem is a system of profit, then we must eliminate profit. Teachers care for all, as well as education, housing and food, because these are the foundations to health. And those who say that there is not enough money to publicly fund our healthcare, I got something to say to you. How about we start taking some of that money out of our military budget, collecting health crises around the world. Serve healthcare now. So when healthcare is under attack, what do we do? Those who do find them discover there is a lack of options for support. Public health care propositions like the expansion we are talking about today are the minimum we can do as a society to be able to live with dignity. On the other hand, if the current federal government gets the rollbacks it's seeking, it will be enabling a tragedy. The pattern of involuntarily committing people who are living in extreme and impossible circumstances will accelerate. Barriers to healthcare do not make for a healthy society, and that's why I'm marching for Medicaid. My name is Volney. My name is Volney, and I'm here to call for the protection and the expansion of Medicaid, not only as a Vermont worker center member, who has gone through the Medicaid system and experienced the benefits and the shortcomings. I've had a long lengthy battle with cancer, in which I heavily relied on the Medicaid system, and once I was within it, I realized that it didn't cover most of the things that I would need. So I then had to move from state to state to pretty much get the care that I needed to live. And nobody should have to do that, and I barely was able to make it. And my story's not unique, and there are people all over that have to go through the same problems, and I feel like everybody in every state, all over America, shouldn't have to worry about their healthcare, and not only for them and themselves and their families, but also the people in their community. So I'm here to call for a protection and expansion of Medicaid, and that's why I'm marching. Okay, can you hear me now? This is not a Verizon customer service anything, so anyway. My name is Christine, I live here in Barrie, and I am with the Vermont Worker Center and proudly organized all this with a bunch of other people. I am marching for Medicaid because mental health issues are a big part of universal healthcare. In order to a normal life, we need this insurance. So healthcare is a human right. This is real stuff we're talking about. People are really suffering. We are really suffering. Members, our neighbors, our coworkers are suffering under this unjust system. And I think our friend Becca here said it best that profit, that's what's up. That's why things are so bad because there are so many people trying to make money off of our bodies. And that ain't right. We sick and tired of our friends and our family members and our neighbors being treated like dollar signs or their gender. Getting beyond human right to healthcare too because we're gonna fight for our right to housing for the rights of people who are different than we are because at the end of the day what unites us all is that we live in the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. Yet there are so many of us struggling just to get by while the rich keep getting richer off our backs. I read in the paper the other day that there's a downtown primary care facility primary care office I believe right over here. Closing. Has anybody heard this? Has anybody go to this doctor? Because we would like to talk with you. We would like to find out. My understanding is 150 patients 1500 patients go to this office to this primary care facility and at least 150 or 200 walk there. So if it closes and it's the only downtown office what is going on folks? Rural hospitals are closing these primary care places are closing in smaller towns and then I hear there's some kind of expansion happening in Burlington. This is not acceptable. Alright I'll try this one more time. I'm bad luck with these microphones today. Alright we're gonna wrap it up we know folks have been in the sun for a long time we have some delicious food coming up over there from the people's kitchen. Let's give it up for the people's kitchen. The important thing is not the end right? It's not the beginning. People have been engaged in this fight for a very long time but it's also not the end. This is the second ever March for Medicaid in the state. We had one last year up in the Northeast Kingdom who was there. Anyone? We're gonna keep this process going. This is not about a single event this is about a process of organizing a robust gigantic movement of poor and working class for monitors we're gonna fight for health care justice we're gonna fight for migrant justice we're gonna fight for disability rights we're gonna fight for gender justice and reproductive justice and we're not gonna stop until we win it all. We're into this movement you've been doing this for a long time I'm sure there's some folks maybe this is the first time you've ever come out to a march like this but you gotta stay involved and really join. When we talk about building a movement we're talking about building strong organizations of people you know we want everyone here to sign up to join the Vermont Worker Center you can do that somewhere over there go visit Julie over there yeah she wants to sign you up for folks who live in Washington County or around Barrie we're gonna be doing on June 12th a new member orientation June 13th a new member orientation if folks want to sign up, get involved even if you've been to Worker Center things before but you aren't a full member yet come on out get involved we've got an amazing community meal program we run here in town we're gonna keep doing stuff like this building our local chapter here we've got chapters all over the state just sign up and we'll be in touch also in July there's gonna be a rate hike hearings at the Green Mountain Care Board Blue Cross Blue Shield year after year they're trying to increase their rates charge people who aren't on Medicaid who are buying plans on the healthcare exchange charge them more money we've got I think two or three years in a row now successfully lowered the rate increase they're asking for it's a long hard fight so keep an eye out for that sign up with the Worker Center and you'll get more info we'll turn out to that um and also you know if you're a member of a union of a faith group some other community organization we need you to join we need your people to join us in this movement for healthcare justice alright so what do we say forward together not one step back major sponsorship was given by Green Mountain Support Services empowering neighbors with disability at home in the community also sponsorship was given by Washington County Mental Health Services where hope and support come together and Champlain Community Services of Vermont