Another World is Possible

On Saturday July 24, Cheri Honkala participated in the People's Tribunal: The US Health Care System on Trial.

The event was put on by Jobs with Justice, the Ad Hoc Committee to defend Health Care, Health Care for All, Doctors for Global Health, the People's Health Movement and Physicians for a National Health Care Plan.

Below is Cheri's testimony:

Good Afternoon. My name is Cheri Honkala, I'm 41 years old with two children. I have struggled most of my life to secure health care for myself, my family and friends. Most of my health care has come in the form of medical assistance, where at lucky times of my life I've been able to get the welfare package of health care. You know the certain eyeglasses for the poor, the certain prescriptions for the poor. No right to teeth. The very limited days of hospital stays and the list goes on. But another huge part of my life I didn't have even the welfare recipient package of health care. Two years ago, I collapsed at a press conference in New York City and if it was not for the advocacy efforts of my oldest son I would have died. Because the hospital was arguing with me about what kind of health insurance I had while I was bleeding internally and had to be rushed into surgery within 7 minutes.

But this horror story is a common one, not an unusual story for me in the work that I do. Very few people I see everyday have any health insurance anymore. They share heart medicine because they can't afford their prescriptions or try to find asthma medication or penicillin on the black market. The free clinics are so full you're lucky now if you're seen the same day... My son's father was recently diagnosed with Hep C so I went to the free clinic at 7 am in the morning to stand outside in the line to get checked for Hepatitis C. After waiting all day I was given an appointment for three months from now because they have waiting lists. I won't even begin to talk about the lack of access to reproductive health care.

Except to tell you about my sister Gina who had a baby this year. She didn't have health insurance and didn't qualify for medical assistance. The doctors predicted that because of her placenta she would hemorrhage and possibly die so she had to wait until she started to hemorrhage in order to get emergency medical assistance. Gina lived through the experience but how many women don't?

Mental health services including drug and alcohol treatment need to be seen in the larger context of being health care issues. Three weeks ago a young male with a substance abuse problem stood in the emergency room of Episcopal Hospital, telling the doctors that he was going to kill himself if someone wouldn't help him with his heroin addiction. They told him that his insurance would no longer cover deter or rehab. He then left the hospital and downed a bottle of pain killers. After standing next to him in the emergency room as the doctors began to fight for his life, my mind was brought back to my brother Mark who also had no health insurance. He sought help and needed medical help he never received it and jumped from a bridge and died.

Now I'm marching 15 -20 miles a day from Jersey City to New York City and the front doors of the Republican National Convention carrying the faces of poor people who have died here at home in the hidden war. We're carrying the faces of the fallen, like Sara, a story that was sent to us by her mother, who didn't have health insurance. The blood clot in her leg went to her lungs and suffocated her and she died.

Sara and Mark died because they didn't have a right to health care. They didn't have a right to health care in the richest country in the world. Water, heat, housing and environmental issues are also life and death issues in our rich nation.

Jury: lets begin to document one by one block by block. The people dying in our country because they didn't have a right to health care. Let them not be forgotten. March with us opening day of the Republican National Convention on August 30th at

4 PM. Carrying the photos of those who are not surviving or who have died. How many more people have to die before we bury the health care system that's killing us? March with us August 30th.

Spanish Coming Soon