NATIONAL HEALTH CARE DAY, OCTOBER 3

At least 87 million people in the United States have either
inadequate health insurance or none at all. Those people who
can qualify for insurance have watched their premiums
skyrocket during recent years, and many are frequently denied
reimbursement for experimental, potentially life-saving
treatments. Many others can neither qualify for nor afford
private insurance, and their numbers have long outgrown the
Reagan/Bush allotment for public resources.

To exacerbate this situation, millions of dollars a day are
now drifting toward a war buildup and away from essential
domestic needs, particularly health care programs. On
September 12 a $780 million AIDS emergency spending act was
slashed to $110 million by a Senate subcommittee, critically
jeopardizing an already tardy federal response to AIDS (see
article above, on CARE bill funding).

AIDS has become the rawest example of a larger, chronic
disaster in U.S. health care. Millions of Americans must
routinely wait "another year" to receive proper treatment. Jobs
with Justice, a national coalition of labor unions and community
organizations, is organizing a day of actions for Wednesday,
October 3, to spotlight the general crisis of quality, access, and
cost of the U.S. health care system, and to demand an equitable,
comprehensive, national system of health care for all.

Sponsors of "Health Care Action Day" include the
Communications Workers of America (CWA), Service Employees
International Union (SEIU), and the International Association of
Machinists (IAM). So far the cities planning for activities include
Atlanta, Birmingham, Boston, Canterbury (New Hampshire),
Chicago, Columbus, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, New
York, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Providence, San
Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle. Unions will also hold noontime
informational picket lines at their worksites. To contact Jobs
With Justice, call 202/728-2395, or 800/4242-USA.

ACT UP/Boston has issued a call for ACT UP chapters around the
country to participate in this effort with local actions: "ACT/UP
Boston urges all groups to seize this opportunity to work with
other groups that will be active on this day, and fight back
against those who are responsible for the state of our healthcare
system." They can be reached at 617/49-ACTUP.