Editor’s note: This commentary is by Becca Polk, of Springfield, who is a middle school social studies teacher and Vermont NEA member.
[T]here was a time where being a teacher had great benefits thanks to the power of union organizing. We need to reinvigorate that energy today in order to fight for universal health care for all people.
The state of our health care is atrocious. Providing people their basic right to health care has become a billion-dollar industry where money is accumulated from every possible place. The demands from insurance companies on doctors mean that care is less accessible, more costly, and less reliable. If the underlying root of the problem is a system of profit, then we must eliminate that from the services that enable us to live healthy. Education, Housing, Food and Healthcare are basic rights that should not be run by companies trying to make a profit.
As a teacher I have dealt with chronic health problems for my five years in the Springfield School District. While health care costs have always included an enormous deduction from my paycheck, the problem lately has become worse. Last year, I stopped seeing doctors after a $5,000 bill, which should have been covered by insurance, but was instead sent to collections. This year, I took medical leave, seeing numerous doctors and going further into medical debt. As a teacher, I bring home at least an hour of work every night. Now on top of that, I am forced to spend time and energy working with a third party administrator to make sure that the insurance company, I can barely afford to pay, is actually taking care of my medical expenses.
My story is one of hundreds of teachers trying to continue to serve our communities through the complexity of our health insurance plans. Gov. Phil Scott has engaged in the “blame the teachers” rhetoric, imposed a state health plan, statewide staffing cuts, and other forms of austerity and union-busting which continues to lower the standards of living for teachers. Teachers unions must fight for the public good — health care for all — while pointing out the real driver of skyrocketing education costs: our market-based health care system.
Teachers are not the only ones struggling. Many families in our communities who can’t access essential care are paying premiums and deductibles that drive them toward poverty. As long as health care is treated as a commodity to be bought and sold for profit, our health is in jeopardy. High-quality health care should be a right and a public good, like public education. To achieve this, we will have to fight for it. Solidarity is the answer! When union, non-union, and unemployed working people unite, universal health care will be just the beginning of what we can achieve. It’s time ALL of us had access to universal, publicly funded health care.
That is why I am joining other VT-NEA members in Barre on June 8 at noon as we “March for Medicaid” and make our voices heard in the struggle for universal health care.
Meet in parking lot of First Presbyterian Church, 19 S. Seminary, Barre.
