On Saturday, November 23d, members of the Put People First! PA Southwest PA Healthcare Rights committee gathered at the Convention Center in Pittsburgh for the annual Thanksgiving food distribution from 8 am to 3 pm. We talked & listened to people coming there to get food and services, asking how their lives would be different if healthcare was a Human Right, listening to their healthcare stories and taking their contact information so we can follow up with conversations about how we can organize to change the profiteering healthcare system that does not meet our needs. Some of our members also used the services offered and received food.
Several people shared stories about their healthcare struggles, and we will share these on Facebook as Medicaid Mondays. For instance, Amber shared a story about being treated for the wrong thing, which caused many problems. Yvette shared how her insurance doesn’t pay for the lenses for her glasses, only the frames. Rebecca said she should be on disability after an amputation rather than having to work to keep her healthcare. We thank each of these people for sharing their stories as well as those who wrote on our story wall – how their lives would be if we had healthcare as a human right, rather than having it tied to work or being means-tested. We advocate for Medicaid for all! We believe in and fight for the human right to healthcare!
Are you in Southwest Pennsylvania and want to get involved? Contact Barbara at bawhite2012@gmail.com or Nijmie at nijmied@gmail.com!
Put People First! PA is a politically independent organization of everyday people from across PA uniting for Healthcare As A Human Right! Our organization is 12 years old, and we are completely member-led and staff free. Our funds go towards helping members during moments of crisis, send folks across the state, country or overseas to study and exchange with others, and to cover the everyday costs of our organizing – People’s Clinic supplies, Zoom lines, printing, providing food and childcare, and more!
We’ve just completed a powerful year of organizing in the wake of the bi-partisan Medicaid purge that has resulted in more than 25 million Americans losing their healthcare since April 1, 2023 – including almost 900,000 here in Pennsylvania. Here are just 3 of our achievements and milestones from 2024:
A bill to restore the adult dental benefit in Medicaid passed the PA House. We are advocating to make sure that working class people in our state can keep as many of their teeth as possible and get the dental care we all need and deserve.
We hosted 50 leaders from 10 states in the Nonviolent Medicaid Army network we founded for an organizing exchange in the Central-Appalachia region that included People’s History, cultural sharing and training in base building and organizing conversations. Teams of 10-15 leaders knocked doors and had hundreds of politically independent organizing conversations about the interconnected crises of health, housing and the economy across Washington, Cambria, Blair and Lawrence counties.
We assisted people across Pennsylvania to appeal their Medicaid cut-offs. Our success rate in helping people keep their Medicaid is 93% compared to the state’s rate of less than 1%.
Philadelphia City Council passed a resolution in support of our proposal for a Public Healthcare Advocate in Pennsylvania!
For larger donations, consider donating via a check to avoid fees. Checks can be made out to our fiscal sponsor, United Workers, with Put People First! PA in the subject line. Send checks to United Workers, P.O. Box 41547, Baltimore MD 21203.
All donations through mightycause, our website, or via a check are tax deductible and will be processed through our sibling organization and fiscal sponsor, United Workers. Their tax ID number is: 20-4345458
Southwest PA Members build connections through Urgent Dental Care
The Mission of Mercy dental clinic offering free dental, vision and hearing care, was in Pittsburgh Nov. 1 & 2, 2024 at the convention center downtown. Put People First! PA Healthcare Rights Committee (HRC) members and mobilizers worked together before the Membership Assembly to connect with and plan rides for people who might need to attend. Members from throughout the state contacted people who responded to our Facebook post, to share information about the clinic and ask who needed a ride. PPF-PA is not affiliated with Mission of Mercy, and we understand the limitations of charity care, but believe it’s important to help meet our needs for dental as well as vision and hearing care, which is often not covered by insurance and which many of us cannot afford. The profiteers that sponsor charity care have tax exempt status and must offer charity as a condition of that status.
“Doors just opened & we’re wrapped around 3 sides of the convention center”
Southwest PA HRC was particularly active for this clinic, with numerous members and mobilizers offering rides to or from the convention center. While driving or on the phone or in line, we listened to people’s stories, while agitating & organizing to demand our human right to healthcare. We call our activity at the clinic a project of survival, based on the example of the Panthers – survival, pending revolution! We did meet people who want to organize for healthcare as a human right, and are following up with them. We are also pushing for legislation to restore the Adult Dental Benefit for people on Medicaid, which was taken away in 2011 but legislation to restore it passed the PA House (but not the PA Senate) in 2024.
At the clinic, as happens with charity care, some needs were taken care of while others weren’t. Those of us who received care stood outside for hours early in the morning in cold November weather; those at the beginning of the line had camped out overnight. And while bottles of water were sometimes offered to those in line, there were no bathroom facilities to use until we went indoors, so how could we drink the water? Outside, there were no accommodations for patients with a disability, kids or the elderly. Some potential patients had to leave, since it was too cold to wait with kids until they were admitted, or they left when the line stopped moving for over an hour, or their health conditions were triggered by the cold. Others had to wait for interpreters. Many of those who attended on Saturday were unable to get time off during the week for dental or other care and cannot afford the cost of root canals, dentures, glasses, hearing aids or other needed services. And so we get our teeth pulled, or use generic ‘readers’, or struggle to hear well, further undermining our health.
Some of those who received care and spoke to us were very pleased with the indoor conditions, the care received from the dental, hearing or vision staff was good, and the line moved more quickly on Saturday than on Friday. The problem is the conditions that excluded many. Many cannot take advantage, even on Saturday, if they are not in line before dawn and can wait outdoors for hours. Is this how our healthcare system should work? We say no! And that’s why we’re fighting for the human right to health care, so that each and every one of us can get what we need when we need it. Our nation has the resources, but refuses to spend them on our care.
Philadelphia City Council Endorses the Public Healthcare Advocate!
Thursday, November 14th, 2024, Philadelphia City Council passed a resolution to call on the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to establish an Office of the Public Healthcare Advocate within the Office of the Attorney General.
Minority Leader Kendra Brooks introduced the resolution Thursday morning, and Philadelphia residents and members of Put People First! PA shared their personal stories with the healthcare system to show the potential impact of a Public Healthcare Advocate.
Read members testimonies and watch the livestream below!
The office would directly assist residents in resolving wrongful insurance denials, overbilling, addressing issues caused by regional hospital closures, improving quality of care from medical providers, educate and inform residents as to their health care rights, and help to protect Pennsylvanians access to care under the new Presidential administration.
This resolution comes on the heels of the successful passage of a similar resolution calling for an Office of the Public Healthcare Advocate in Lancaster, PA City Council.
(Photo: Southeast PA Healthcare Rights Committee members Anita, Jacob B., Jeanette and Zevi standing with Councilwoman, Kendra Brooks (in yellow), who introduced the resolution on Thursday.)
Member Testimonies & Livestreams
Zevi’s Testimony
Hi, my name is Zevi. I live in West Philadelphia and I’m a proud member of Put People First! PA. I am speaking on Councilwoman Brooks’ resolution on a Public Healthcare Advocate, or PHA.
I’m a healthcare worker – a therapist at an agency that sees people, mostly kids, on Medicaid. It’s great that they have access to Medicaid! And, something that’s very clear to me is that what would most help these kids is living in a society that actually meets their basic needs. If their parents didn’t have to work all the time, be stressed all the time, a lot of their pain and their “behavioral issues” would go away. More than anything, my patients need an end to poverty. And we know that won’t happen overnight, but it’s something we need to fight for, and having a Public Healthcare Advocate is a step in the right direction.
In Put People First PA, we started organizing for a PHA in 2016 after winning town halls with the Pennsylvania Insurance Department. Through that, we learned that the regulators have very close relationships with the insurance companies, but there’s no one in government who actually represents us, the people who use and need healthcare, making sure that big healthcare decisions in society are actually benefiting us.
What we’ve seen, over and over, is that decisions are not benefiting us. Instead, decisions are being made that prioritize profits for healthcare profiteers. And these decisions are making us suffer and die needlessly. Just one example is hospital closures. At least 15 hospitals have closed in Pennsylvania in the past 5 years. This is a catastrophe. Just a couple blocks from my house in West Philly, a hospital shut down the Intensive Care Unit because it wasn’t making enough money. Hahnemann Hospital was bought and closed by someone who thought he could make more money flipping it as real estate. And this was all just allowed to happen because there’s no one in government who has the power to say, “you can’t do that” – which is what a Public Healthcare Advocate would do.
The PHA legislation is powerful because it is statewide. It would help people in Philly and also in Delaware County, Scranton, Altoona, Johnstown. We talk and build with people in all of these places and wherever we go, people agree with us – yes, this system is broken, we are hurting. We need care and can’t get it. And it is powerful, in a time where so many issues are being used to divide and pit us against each other, that the need for healthcare unites us. Through our struggle for a public healthcare advocate, poor and working class people are coming together across all of our divisions to fight for what we all need. Thank you for supporting it. Watch Zevi’s livestream here!
Jeanette’s Testimony
My son Tyrone was on blood thinners when he was denied Medicaid. He couldn’t get his medication anymore, and had a heart attack and died. I wish there was someone who could have fought for my son, like a Public Healthcare Advocate. Watch Jeanette’s livestream here!
After the event, Jeanette reflected, “I enjoyed speaking to the councilmen and women. Telling told my stories about my son and how he was denied medical assistance. It really hurt me to talk about Tyrone, but they need to know. I will never see my Tyrone again. R.I.P, my love, gone but not forgotten. I love you all for supporting me in this struggle.”
Antoinette’s Testimony
Hi, my name is Antoinette Saunders, and I live in North Philly with my seven children. I am speaking on Councilwoman Brooks’ resolution on a Public Healthcare Advocate. My experience with Medicaid has been a rocky road. My whole family has Medicaid. When you’re pregnant there’s certain things insurance is supposed to do. All appointments are supposed to be covered like the stress test, testing the compatibility of the fetus and mother, and testing the fetus for any abnormalities. Dental is also supposed to be covered. That was not my experience. I was hospitalized thrice during my pregnancy, with my doctor pushing for unnecessary procedures, and I left. The third time, my daughter was born and had to stay in the NICU.
I have periodontal disease, which can lead to death if untreated. When I went to the dentist, I was denied, and had to pay out of pocket which I can’t do because I can’t afford it. Even at the free clinics, they were doing cleanings which is not going to treat the disease because Medicaid wouldn’t cover all of the dental care I needed.
With my oldest daughter I’ve been fighting to keep her on medicine. The doctor has sent in her prescription multiple times, and her insurance keeps denying it. This occurs at all the different pharmacies we go to.
Anita reading Antoinette’s testimony
My youngest boy had to have surgery on his mouth, they fixed what they needed to fixed. A few weeks later, I got a letter from insurance telling me they wouldn’t cover it. I have filed an appeal and am waiting for a response to that.
I deal with a lot as it is which causes my depression and my anxiety to raise, especially when it comes to my son. My periodontal disease is painful because it affects your gums, and if you eat, or if it’s too cold there’s pain. It’s not something I can put on the backburner. I try and treat myself before going in to the doctors. I don’t like that healthcare is a money making industry. The way to change that is organizing together. We need to make the voice of the people heard, so that is why I support a Public Healthcare Advocate. Listen to Antoinette’s story read by Anita on the livestream here!
