Who inspires you to keep fighting?

 

I fight for Windy!

Dear Friends, Over the past two months, I’ve written to you a lot to ask you to donate to Healthcare-NOW, but today I wanted to share why I became a donor. Meet my friend Windy:

When I first met her in 2014, Windy was in a brutal fight with the world’s largest company. She was 63 years old then and had been working full-time at a Walmart in upstate New York for a decade when she had a heart attack at the store. Because she couldn’t work while she was recovering for 8 months, she lost her healthcare, leaving her broke from medical expenses. When she finally got back to work, the company had cut her hours back to part time, the health insurance Walmart provided was expensive and barely adequate, and she still found herself skipping meals to pay for medicine and doctors. Most people in Windy’s situation end up suffering in silence, but Windy is a fighter. She joined up with hundreds of fellow Walmart workers from around the country and put her livelihood on the line to organize for respect on the job and comprehensive healthcare for herself and her co-workers. She fought for years to win even tiny improvements in the healthcare Walmart workers receive. She also became a vocal supporter of Medicare For All. Today, Windy no longer works at Walmart, and she was able to enroll in Medicare, but even now, thanks to flaws and gaps in the current Medicare system, she’s struggling to pay a $4,000 ER bill for a recent visit. She’s fighting the hospital to settle on a monthly payment she can afford, but they aren’t budging. Like I said, Windy has always been a fighter, and she’ll always stand up for what’s right, but here’s the thing — she, and the millions of other workers like her, shouldn’t have to spend their lives fighting for the medical care they need to survive. They shouldn’t have to battle hospitals and their employers for access to a doctor. They shouldn’t have to go without healthcare when they’re out of work. If we could pass the federal Medicare For All Act in 2022, which would improve and expand Medicare to everyone in this country, folks wouldn’t have to fight quite so hard. That’s why I made a donation to Healthcare-NOW this week in honor of Windy. I wanted to pay tribute to her indomitable spirit by strengthening the movement that Healthcare-NOW is working to build. I wanted to make sure that we have the resources we need to make real healthcare justice a reality. Do you have a Windy in your life? Someone who inspires you to keep fighting? I invite you to join me in making a contribution this holiday season in honor of someone you know who deserves better than our current healthcare system. Together, we can make real change! On behalf of Windy and Ben and the whole team at Healthcare-NOW, thank you for all you do. We hope you’ll have some time this holiday season to rest up and get ready for a new year filled with good health and good trouble! In solidarity, Gillian Healthcare-NOW staff Healthcare-NOW 1534 Tremont St. Boston, MA 02120-2929 United States