As a non-traditional student at CMU, my experience with health care has been a problem.

Going to school full-time and working only part-time makes it harder for ends to meet. Affording health care has been a challenge. By only working a part-time job, I struggle to find an employer that pays for health insurance. Trying to find a full-time job is no easy task in Michigan.

It is very interesting that other states have every affordable universal health care rates for citizens – Maine, Vermont and Illinois, to name a few. Medical insurance is covered for small businesses, and for providing tax incentives for businesses and for individuals to afford insurance in these states.

In Vermont, free medical and dental care is offered to every resident under 18 years old and with a family income below $50,000. For adults who live with an income below 150 percent of the federal poverty line ($12,500 for a single adult and $25,000 for a family of four), medical coverage is offered for a nominal fee.

For people who need drug coverage for the elderly and people with disabilities, they can afford to pay only $3 a month. Health insurance companies are required to sell policies to people who request regardless of age or medical history.

In Michigan, the government has citizens paying out of pocket – for those who have secure jobs and for those who cannot afford out-of-pocket to go with insurance. Michigan has no free medical or health care programs.

There are only costs for insurance premiums. The drug coverage in Michigan is not free, and there are only 39 cities/counties that offer free clinics in Michigan – many of them hours away.

In Vermont, officials have support from a Democratic governor and state legislators from both parties; doctors and the public have come together. These are people who really care about what happens to one another.

People in Michigan have got to pull together and be strong in order to see change. To understand how the government has failed us as people of this county and of Michigan, now is our chance to speak up and speak out, to stand up for what we believe in, and to gain our country and state back as strong as it has ever been. So my challenge is to Gov. Jennifer Granholm: What do citizens have to do to be heard?

Janet Booth
Clare junior

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