Multiple local news outlets covered the Medicaid Marches across the state. Stay tuned for additions! Shout out to Put People First! PA’s Media & Communications team for extensive work on press releases, calls and follow up.
Through our connection with the Poor People’s Campaign, our concept of a Nonviolent Medicaid army has spread throughout the County! Below, you can find examples of news coverage of the Medicaid Marches that were held in other states such as Vermont, Kansas, Maine, Wisconsin, New York, and North Carolina. Forward together!
From the Johnstown Healthcare Rights Committee’s Medicaid March:
Today we brought our demands to City Hall, we gave them this letter:
September 29th, 2019
Dear Mayor Janakovic and City Council:
The Johnstown Healthcare Rights Committee of Put People First! PA is alarmed at City Council’s plans to hire more police officers and increase the JPD budget by $500,000 over the next three years, half of which will come from city coffers.
What is the rationale for increasing the size of our police force when our population has been shrinking for years? Where will the city come up with the $250,000 for the new officers, when the city can barely balance its budget each year and has been in the Act 47 program for nearly 30 years? City Council just voted to remain in the program until 2023, does this city ever intend to exit Act 47?
Why would the city try to hire more police officers when the JPD complains about not being able to find good recruits? Why would the city commit more resources to a department with a track record of systemic racism and excessive force, including the killing of Elip Cheatham in 2012 and the beating of a mentally ill elderly man this summer?
If the city has the money it should be used to ensure that when someone calls 911 about a mental health crisis, mental health professionals respond, not cops with guns.
The people of Johnstown do not want more police officers. We had historic protests against police violence and systemic racism this summer after which City Council approved a mural that says “End Racism Now” on the street. If you want to back up those words with actions, do the right thing: Cancel the plans for more cops, give back the DOJ grant, and put that $250,000 into mental health resources for our community.
Sincerely, Johnstown Healthcare Rights Committee Put People First! PA
PRESS CONTACT: Nijmie Dzurinko Phone: 215-667-0066 Email: nijmied@gmail.com Put People First! PA Putpeoplefirstpa.org
HUNDREDS TURN OUT LOCALLY FOR “MEDICAID MARCHES” IN JOHNSTOWN, ALTOONA, PITTSBURGH, PHILADELPHIA, WILKES-BARRE, MONTCO, AND LANCASTER PA
MARCHES RESPOND TO GOV. WOLF’S PROPOSED HEALTHCARE REFORMS, CALL FOR IMMEDIATE EXPANSION OF MEDICAID TO ALL RESIDENTS AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A PUBLIC HEALTHCARE ADVOCATE, DEMAND JUSTICE FOR VICTIMS OF HEALTHCARE PROFITEERING AND OTHER FORMS OF STATE VIOLENCE
Medicaid Marches Go National: Spread To Alabama, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Wisconsin for First Time In 2020 as part of the launch of the National Nonviolent Medicaid Army
Put People First! PA, a grassroots human rights organization with nine Healthcare Rights Committees representing members across Pennsylvania, held “MEDICAID MARCHES” in seven locations across the state during the first week of October, calling on Governor Wolf to apply for a federal waiver to expand Medicaid to all PA residents to ensure universal coverage, and calling on the Governor and legislature to support the creation of a Public Healthcare Advocate that will fight for the healthcare rights of everyday Pennsylvanians. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that over 1 million PA residents will lose employer sponsored health coverage as a result of the economic crisis, meaning the demand for Medicaid will skyrocket. (1) At the same time, facing a 5 billion dollar budget deficit, the PA legislature is already looking to take aim at Medicaid with bills like HB 2476 and HB 2857.
The marches also responded with concern to Governor Wolf’s aptly timed Health Reform Plan announcement. “Governor Wolf’s draft plan creates new commissions and councils. These bodies will benefit from an Advocate who will work directly with the public to fight for our rights and hold state agencies and profiteers accountable,” said Tammy Rojas, of Lancaster. “The Public Healthcare Advocate proposal we created has been vetted by several dozen Representatives and Senators and has bi-partisan support,” she added.
“Governor Wolf needs to act immediately to address the COVID-19 crisis by applying for a Federal Waiver to expand Medicaid to all residents of PA, and improve oversight of our fractured, profit-seeking healthcare system by passing legislation to establish an Office of the Public Healthcare Advocate”, agreed Dr. Sharrelle Barber of Philadelphia.
The nonviolent, masked, socially-distanced marches demonstrated the connections between all forms of state violence against the poor, linking the crisis of extra-judicial police violence, lack of housing, and mass incarceration to the more than 200,000 people in the US who have been killed by COVID-19 as a result of healthcare profiteering and neglect, all of which disproportionately impact poor and working class Pennsylvania residents, especially people of color. Even before COVID-19, approximately 45,000 people in the US died a year from a lack of health insurance (2) and according to a 2019 survey, 25% of people delayed serious medical care because of skyrocketing costs. (3)
In Philadelphia, demonstrators marched several blocks from the site of the new Police Headquarters to the shuttered Hahnemann Hospital, demanding that the city reinvest the $300 million slated for the renovation of the headquarters to seize and re-open the hospital. Former staff and patients of the Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC) spoke out about union-busting practices that have harmed both staff and patients. PHMC is the agency Governor Wolf awarded the contract as Pennsylvania’s Healthcare Emergency Preparedness Vendor.
In Lancaster, which recently suffered a wave of police violence following the extra-judicial killing of Ricardo Munoz during a mental-health check on September 13th, demonstrators marched to the recently shuttered and re-zoned St. Joseph’s Hospital, where residents decried the elimination of mental-health and other critical healthcare services and demanded permanent housing for unhoused residents of Binns Park.
In Johnstown, marchers protested the City Council’s decision to increase the Police Dept. budget by $250,000, demanding the money be allocated for a crisis response team of health and social workers to intervene where police aren’t needed.
“The police are not trained or qualified to replace public health and mental health services.” said Maddy Burrows, Johnstown Healthcare Rights Committee co-coordinator, citing the case of George Corson Jr. who was beaten by police over the summer after they were called by Conemaugh Hospital.
“Police killings, profiteering hospitals and insurance companies are all forms of state-sponsored violence that benefit the rich at the expense of the poor.” said Briann Moye of Pittsburgh. “Healthcare companies are concerned with their bottom-line, not our health, and the police who protect their property are allowed to kill poor people, especially people of color, with impunity.”
In Pittsburgh, demonstrators demanded UPMC pay their back-taxes to the city, absolve medical debt and be transparent about their billion dollar bailout. In Montgomery County, demonstrators targeted Aetna Insurance’s offices in Blue Bell, which denied crucial medication to 2 leaders in Put People First! PA and countless others. Altoona marchers demonstrated at UPMC, and in Wilkes-Barre marchers called for reform outside the city’s police headquarters.
The demonstrations, which attracted hundreds of participants across the state and over 5,000 views on social media, were led by Put People First! PA and joined by local groups and partner organizations in the PA Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival (PPC:NCMR), of which Put People First! PA is a coordinating member.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Medicaid Marches are also being held for the first time in Kansas, North Carolina, Alabama, New York, Maine, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, and other states as part of the nationwide launch of the Nonviolent Medicaid Army, a growing national movement of poor and dispossessed people uniting around the demands for Medicaid for All and an end to all forms of state violence.
South Central Medicaid March Letter to the Editor Series
“Why I’m joining the South Central PA Medicaid March on October 3rd”
Medicaid Marches started in Vermont by the Vermont Workers Center a couple of years ago. They found them a very effective tactic especially for consolidating their base building efforts in new places. PPF-PA has done a statewide week of action for the last several years in September, before the October Membership Assembly. Last year, we took up the Medicaid Marches as the heading for our statewide week of action, which dovetails with our years-long development of the Nonviolent Medicaid Army which is now a national formation and includes the National Union of the Homeless, Unión de Vecinos (LA), Cosecha (national), Kansas Poor People’s Campaign, Raise Up NC, North Carolina Poor People’s Campaign, Vermont Workers Center, PPF-PA and growing with other members of the Poor People’s Campaign.
Terrell, Co-Coordinator of the York Healthcare Rights Committee
We are dropping the ball big time, and by “we” I mean state and local government that has failed to provide the material well being needed to function in a healthy society, much less a pandemic!
I, Terrell Turner still work in all of this and live with a layered guilt. Possibly being asymptomatic and infecting those more vulnerable. Being able to provide for my family while countless friends, family, and neighbors struggle to maintain basic dignity. At the same time York County along with our neighbors watch multi million deals in luxury housing development happen in places where our already insufficient healthcare apparatus was further diminished.
Increased levels of homelesness, poverty, job loss, sickness, and misery lay on the horizon. Subsequently, we as citizens have to jump in front of the looming crisis and demand protections that our elected officials have so easily ignored. Don’t question if the shoe fits, it does.
So join us, the Put People First! PA York & Lancaster Healthcare Rights Committee for our South Central Medicaid march on October 3 at 3pm at 250 College Ave, Lancaster, PA. Our Medicaid March will be one of many happening across the state and nation the week of September 28th. We must band together to fight back against the interconnected injustices happening to our people. Will you join us? putpeoplefirstpa.org
Erica, York Healthcare Rights Committee
Will Bunch is absolutely right to address homelessness in the September 7th Opinion article “America’s real hoax.” Homelessness is a crisis that has largely been ignored for years. If changes aren’t made, it will soon explode.
The CDC eviction moratorium is a step in the right direction but isn’t enough. Tenants must meet guidelines to qualify and landlords can evict renters for reasons other than lack of income. Even if tenants do qualify, the protection ends January 1st. Without any kind of rental assistance to repay rents, how many people will be forced onto the streets? How many families?
The rise in homeless rates between January 2020 and next January will likely be devastating. Homelessness was already rising before COVID-19 hit. Between January 2019 and January 2020, York’s homeless population rose by 12.5% and the number of people unsheltered doubled after years of rates staying relatively stable.
The county now has more emergency motel vouchers than in previous years, but those are a finite resource. And with social distancing requirements, our local shelters expect space to be cut in half or worse.
We urgently need to increase shelter space, but shelters don’t help unhoused people in the long-term. And they do little to diminish the medical risks of homelessness: pneumonia, frostbite, tuberculosis, bronchitis, injury from falls and being hit by cars, let alone the risks of COVID-19.
We need a long-term strategy to eradicate homelessness. If countries like Finland can reduce homelessness, there is no excuse why the richest country in the world can’t do the same. This is why I will be joining the Put People First! PA South Central PA Medicaid March on 10/3 @3PM at 250 College Avenue in Lancaster as we demand housing and healthcare as human rights for all.
Matthew, Co-Coordinator of the Lancaster Healthcare Rights Committee
My name is Matthew Rosing, I am the co-coordinator of the Lancaster Healthcare Rights Committee of Put People First! PA and a leader in the PA Poor People’s Campaign A National Call for Moral Revival. I’m disheartened by the recent act of State Violence that led to the death of Ricardo Munoz.
The lack of mental healthcare is an act of state violence, Ricardo’s death by police is an act of state violence. Intimidation and unjustified arrests with $1 million bails are acts of state violence.
We are in the middle of a global pandemic. The number of Covid-19 cases among inmates and staff has skyrocketed, and several deaths have already occurred. LCP, a facility that already lacks basic things like air conditioning, drinkable water and slim to none healthcare, the number of Covid-19 cases will surely rise more than they already have causing unnecessary deaths.
There are many people that are sitting in County Prison’s unjustifiably simply due to the fact of being poor, homeless, mentality ill, and now to add insult to injury we are locking up well known peaceful protestors.
That’s why I will be joining the South Central Medicaid March on Oct 3rd at 3pm at the old St. Joseph’s hospital to call out these injustices among others. The poor and dispossessed are tired of the system of oppression we live under, it’s killing us. Please join us on October 3rd and stand in solidarity with the poor and dispossessed to say no more!
Tammy, Co-Coordinator of the York Healthcare Rights Committee
I’m a member of Put People First! PA. I’m on the Coordinating Committee of the PA Poor People’s Campaign a National Call for Moral Revival, which is a continuation of the work started by Martin Luther King Jr. before his assassination. I will be marching in the Medicaid March to demand a Public Healthcare Advocate for Pennsylvania.
I, like many others in the community, am upset about the decision made by the Lancaster City Council to rezone the St. Joseph’s hospital property from a HC zone to MU to build primarily luxury housing and retail space instead of organizing with us to get our redevelopment vision which would have addressed the gaps in healthcare, housing, food insecurity, good paying jobs and other social services our community needs.
It’s heartbreaking that it took the murder of Ricardo Munoz for our City Government to start talking about these issues. If they are serious then they should start listening to our solutions.
If we had a PHA in place when UPMC announced the closure of St. Joseph’s, our fight would have been easier. We know there are gaps in healthcare services, especially mental healthcare and having a PHA will address those gaps. We must demand a PHA for Pennsylvania to avoid unnecessary deaths.
I’ll be marching in the South Central Medicaid March on October 3rd at 3pm at 250 College Ave, Lancaster, PA. Will you join the York & Lancaster Put People First! PA Healthcare Rights Committees for our South Central PA Medicaid March?
