Transcripts For CSPAN Public Affairs Events 20240714

Help making sure that their ducks are in a row . These are the things that we are trying to talk about today, when we talk about things like longterm care and family care. And the other point when someone in your family get sick, you should not have to worry about, will i get paid today . We need to talk about a serious paid family medical leave that if your child gets sick or your grandmother falls that you can take some time off to make sure they are ok emotionally, that they are ok physically and that they are ok mentally. And that you shouldnt have to lose your pay or your job to do these simple acts. And that is what we want to do when we talk about paid family leave. All of these things are encompassed in what we like to call the caring economy. The caring economy guarantees every Single Person in this country is respected no matter what. We dont talk about the folks folks that are getting those services. We also talk about the folks that are providing those services. Heres the thing. You cannot automate the human touch. You cannot automate the kerosene or needs with a home care worker. That will not happen. The question we have to ask ourselves is if we respect our seniors and elders and kids, are we going to treat the folks providing that care with dignity and respect . Are we making sure they will not get sick . [applause] to losey do not have their job because their daughter, son, mother, sister get sick. That we take care of them too. If they need time off, we will give them time off. If they need to collectively that bargain for higher wages, they can do that. And that there is a minimum wage so they are not take care of someone for nine dollars an hour. Because i will tell you what, if u. S. Any of these greedy billionaires, is taking care of your mother worth nine dollars per hour . They will tell you know, it is not. If we respect our seniors and our kids, is taking care of your kid with nine dollars an hour, or is it worth more than that . So we have an Incredible Group , of panelists. I will have them introduce themselves to talk about what it means to build a caring economy. One that is allencompassing. From when you are born, making sure you have the services that you need. And that when you get older, your parents do not have to worry about teaching her how to read or making sure they can pay the bills so they can feed you. To all the way when youre older. Right . I will close with a personal story. I have an older brother who got sick in 2013. He already had severe autism. Could not communicate like regular folks. And he required fulltime care. Now in 2013, my brother got really sick. Got diabetes, lost some motor function in his legs. And is now dependent on a trach, has to breathe from a little hole the size of a mcdonalds straw. I think about the privilege that we have had in my family that my parents had eight kids. We are a pretty tightknit family. We were able to all chip in to sowe were able to all chip in to make sure we are able to take care of him. We make sure we know how to suction him when his trachea gets messy. We help him walk to the bathroom. We monitor his food so he doesnt choke. And that sure he is taking his we are making sure he is taking his meds and everything in between. But i think about the folks who have one child. And i thing about the folks who alone,e parent, or live and are dealt with the circumstances. What are we doing to make sure those people get the same amount of care and love that we are able to provide my brother . And i will tell you, even with eight kids we still need help. We still need help to make sure that he has all the supplies he needs. I cannot tell you how many times we have to call the insurance company. To get what they like to call, prior authorization at any time if he needsanges, an adaptation in his medication or supplies. The question is, how are we going to make sure we are building that caring economy for all these people like my brother and everybody in between this Incredible Group of panelists will talk about what it means in to invest in child care. What it means to invest in longterm family care and senior care. What it means to invest finally in a medicare for all singlepayer system. And what it means to make sure all those people working in that industry are treated with the dignity and care and respect and get the care they deserve. I will shut up and we will have folks quickly introduce themselves. [applause] my name is bria lewis, i recently became involved in attending some mothering justice events. Whole, looking forward to delving further into these issues as well as hearing from the perspective of the other panelists. Hello everybody. Im an unlicensed child care provider. Im also a part of mothering justice, michigan united, and a bunch of other group. Groups. I want to clean up our city. Part of that is we need affordable childcare and medicaid for all. Hello everyone, i want to thank you all for coming out. It is a diverse crowd. We have youth, elderly people, different races. We need that. I also want to thank our councilwoman for being a champion of change for fighting all of these issues. I know it is tough out there, especially in the crazy white house. [laughter] and in that crazy congress. You definitely fight for us. Of and im glad youre part detroit. And i thank you. [applause] [cheering] thank you. Thank you. Rep. Tlaib i want you to know that the only way we get closer to universal health care is from your activism. Thank you for being a voice for so many that cant speak up because of the broken inhumane Health Care System. Im honored to be here as your member of congress representing the 13th congressional district. I can tell you that this new class is not only diverse but it is also real. Many of my colleagues, one in particular, had no health care until she became a member of congress. Another has a preexisting condition and knows what it would need to take away that protection. Another lost her mother because of the broken Health Care System. Not only are we diverse, we are so also so real in how we have been impacted by this broken Health Care System in our country. I hope you have so much hope that we will get to to singlepayer, to medicare for all, to fight back against the corporate greed that targets thousands of dollars for insulin. This is all they need to survive, this insulin. Things that the government subsidize for. That we paid for the development and research of. We should be able to provide for our families very easily. It should not be this tough. But thank you. Because i will tell you anything transformative in this country, i dont care what it was. From the Civil Rights Movement to the womens right movement. It really happened in the streest with people like you. Continue to fight back. So and thank you for when i came that sign. Because when i came out, the majority of the Democratic Caucus now supports impeaching this president. So i think you all for supporting me on that. [applause] [cheering] good evening everyone. I stand in total agreement with michigan united mothering carrying a cross, and impart alliance. Thank you. [applause] good evening everybody. My name is henrietta ivey. I am a detroit advocate for workers and activist in my community. I want to thank everyone for coming out. We have some stories for you. [applause] all right. So, we will now hear from our panelists. They will share a quick story about their personal stake in this game. We will start off with henrietta. If you can tell us in a couple of minutes what brings you here, how you are impacted, and what we are trying to build with a caring economy. And why you want to keep fighting . Just like the congresswoman said, Health Care Care for all is necessary. I am a victim where i lost my job that gave me health care coverage. Once i lost my job, i went two years without health care coverage. That prevented me from going to the doctor and finding out if there were issues going on with you. By the time i was eligible for medicare expansion, i did go back to my physician and i had developed diabetes. I found out that i developed diabetes is when i went to the emergency room and had a cut on my finger and it swelled up. You do those preliminary tests when you go to the emergency room. When the doctor came back to say i have good news and bad news i , panicked. I thought good news and bad news, im a healthy as a horse. I figured because i lived a healthy lifestyle, going two years without insurance would be ok. It wasnt. Well, i was diagnosed with prediabetes, now i am a full on diabetic. I am here tonight to talk about i am here tonight to talk about the caring economy and how important it is for this Medicaid Expansion for all. There are families out here suffering who cannot go to the doctor because they dont have health care coverage. Im here to talk about the big insurance companies. Because that is a travesty. When we cannot have insurance to cover our basic needs. I am here to talk about what can be done. Im fighting with the congresswoman and my panelists appear to make sure this message message gets across to the lawmakers that we need to care medicare for all. It is a human right. [applause] i would like to thank god for another chance to share my story. Thank you to congress a mentally tlaib. And the caring economy. And mothering justice. Thank you for this town hall. Thank you for allowing me a few minutes of your time. After high school, my path choice was technology. I wanted to become an entrepreneur. I went to work, i went to school, i have five children and i knew my mother was aging. At that time, i was young. When you are young you take in on the world. You dont think about the consequences because you have the energy. You just do it. I became my mothers caregiver in 1999, when i noticed she needed special needs. In the state of michigan, they allowed my mother 5. 15 per hour for 20 hours a month for her to pay me. That was not working for me. I had to work, finish school, i had five children, i also was planning to get married. I thank god again because we made it. In 2014 my mother passed away at 88 years old. She lived in her home. She was healthy. And she was in love. She was surrounded by her family. Even though it is hard, it was not easy for me and my family to balance taking care of her and taking care of ourselves at the same time. So i believe working together is the key to having a successful and healthy community. I learned this from my mother who was a teacher and Community Leader. She always is going above and beyond the call of duty. My parents moved here from georgia. I lived in your district for over 60 years. I love my community and state. And i love my country. Right now, people are suffering and some are even dying because of the lack of care. This is unnecessary. For the last 20 years i have stood with the home care workers in the state of michigan and said we are invisible no more. In 2005 we have a voice. We united we have our first wage increase. We had a voice that made it clear that if something wasnt done then, it would get worse. And it did. We are in a crisis right now. There is a shortage of 32,000 home care workers in the state of michigan. We need those workers by 2020. The people that arent getting the care are suffering because workers are not being recognized. We need this caring ecomony to build up workers so people could have the care they need. We can do this together. Lets use united we stand and make it work. [applause] hello everyone, again. Is there any fathers in the house . Let me give you guys a round of applause. [applause] im here to talk about health care and childcare. I was even necessarily here for health care. It hit our country hard. I lost my cousin two years ago. I was working for the Michigan Democratic campaign. It was a tough time for me. At 39 or so due to diabetes. He did not have health cares for last years he was alive. It was too late. I think it is important that we we all have Affordable Health care. I havent had health care for the last two years. It is serious. People get sick all the time. A lot of people dont have money. We have people getting rich off of us getting sick. It doesnt make any sense. I cant stand the thought of it. This woman right here is my mom. I love you. I have to thank her so much because the support she gave me, i was fortunate. A lot of my friends and relatives have problems with childcare. I know a lot of people who lost jobs due to not having a babysitter. It is sad that you cannot find support. In here, you all deserve a round of applause. I grew up without my father so i know how it feels. It hurt. They dont have the support they need. Im lucky enough to have support from my mom. I thank you for that. It has been a roller coaster ride. I will be honest with you all. There was time i didnt have babysitters. I couldnt afford it. The job didnt understand that. They didnt care to understand that. I understood it was a job. They never really took the time out to understand where i was coming from. I called off four times due to not having a babysitter and i was fired. It is important for us to have affordable childcare. Thank you guys for giving me opportunities. [applause] i have to go behind that. Being an unlicensed Childcare Provider gives me an opportunity to help families in need. They dont have reasonable priced childcare. When they think about affordable childcare, we have to the about the compassion when it comes down to watching children. I have been doing childcare for 20 years. It shows that you care. I have to do the basics. I have to have my neighbors watch their children. When we talk about Affordable Care, we have to be Holding People accountable. Questionsked the first , a lot of us take advantage of our health care. Care who dont have health , we have to push and say we need Affordable Health care for all. Taxes we pay taxes, where is our money going . We have to make sure we are living healthy and strong because we have health data. I will turn the ball over. [applause] i have been asked to address the topic of paid family leave. From twoctive comes different angles. One is the part of the work i do. I work in legal services. I hear countless stories of people having these choices. I get the call about eviction. Had ans out this person child that was hospitalized or a chronic illness or had to choose between taking the time off of lovednd caring for their one. They were ultimately fired. Coming at the issue out on a personal level. To take advantage of family medical leave but had to do so much sooner in my current pregnancy then i planned. Doingomes a question of what is financially preferable versus what would result in the best result for my health and the health of my unborn children as well. Everybody, i have concluded that i am at the intersection of a lot of these issues, as many other people are in that i am navigating what the system offers in terms of leave childcare costs. As well as the work of actually caring or children. In the past, my husband had to go back to work within a few days of giving birth. A lot of the support came from my mother. My mother is now caring for my grandmother, who is 90. There is a longterm care issue in that as well. My grandmother deserves to age with every bit of dignity that she has lived with. The dynamic of what my options are. The choices i am facing are more and example of the piecemeal approach of caregiving that we have. My circumstances arent nearly as dire as a lot of other people. Nevertheless, it is a piecemeal approach. Instead of focusing on the wellbeing and the wellbeing of my children and family, im focused on doing the best with the pieces. People make do. People have been making do. Means that,r me making do for other people means do i get evicted or take care of a sick child. How longion becomes are we satisfied with taking dual . Is making do enough when we can do better . Countries with far fewer resources than we have managed to craft policies that serve their economy as well as their citizens. Why cant we do that . Issues,th the other paid leave is as much an opportunity to promote economics , the social, familial, wellbeing. The interest of our citizens in that way. Established it is clearly been done, the need or what is a national need, how do we make it a national priority. Thank you so much. [applause] congresswoman, we know the stats, 70 Million People cant afford the health care they need. Moreyear, we need 32,000 healthcare workers to make sure folks have the care they need. People lose 20 billion because they dont have access to family leave and sick leave. If you could address the economy and what it means to have a medicare for all system . Many of you came here because of the specific issue in many folks seem to talk about medicare for all. Here, it isu hear about creating a caring economy. It is not only do we want medicare for all that will cover longterm care . But who can provide the longterm care . Who can we employ to make sure they have Human Dignity as well, not just the people we care for. We want to make sure those in the workforce, creating a caring ouromy and making sure that folks when they want to take care of their families, that they are now back at work within a week. Setting these values around families. It is about expanding access to care. We always talk about coverage. We talk about making sure people are covered. What does that actually entail . Does that entail the people who will take care of our neighbors that need this . Who are the people in the workforce that need coverage and paid sick leave . It is very important as we talk not only about the care for all but all of the other elements that we have been fighting for, especially around a workforce that is really lacking. Making sure they have fair wages and so. In the same brett that we are talking about other things, 90 of us prefer to age in our homes. I didnt even need to see that statistic. They dont want to leave their homes. We want to support that. Of workers currently in the United States right now have access to paid family leave through an employer. Think about that for one moment. People are one accident away. People have to choose their child. Nearly one quarter of moms go back to work within two weeks. Returned of four men to jobs after one week or less after having a child. American families lose 20 billion in lost wages because they lack access to paid sick leave. It goes on and on. I think we get it here. Especially in my district. It is supported, overwhelmingly. Support 10 voters revenue to support a family medical leave program. Eight in 10. They want the kind of support to make sure people are in a humane system. That the folks around them are treated with dignity. It is important, pushback. If theres anything we want to pay into, it is a system that works for all of us. Every single one of us will end up having to touch a care worker. We will have to touch a child or worker that has access to sick leave. Care in ourhealth country. That we create the caring economy, caring system that is important. Coverage is not enough. Thank you. Thank you congresswoman. Is important, like you mentioned, that the people who are caring for us are not getting sick. They need to take time off or they are not stressed so they can take a day or two off. All of you really talked about the need to make sure we have a comprehensive Health Care System that covers everyone, no matter what. Doesnt matter if you are rich or poor. To make sure you have access to health care. When folks get older or have a longterm illness, they provide the care they need and youre making sure the folks giving that care are treated with respect. Have at least a 15 minimum wage, access way union. That parents have access to Something Like child data. If you are a single dad you can take care of your child and work. If you are providing that childcare, that you get the respect and dignity that you deserve. Talking about the longterm care. We have two things on the table. Caregiver economy encompassing everything we talked about right now. Then we have medicare for all. Todays event is a community conversation. We have a panelist up here to listen to all of you. In order to make this as fair as possible we will take a question from here and russian from there. If you have one raise your hand and i will come over and talk to you. Most questions will be directed towards the congresswoman. Tag in any of these incredible folks. Im sure they have a lot of insight. Dont fall asleep. [laughter] make sure you listen. Ght. Ill start off to my ri if you raise your hand, i will walk over to you and we will j ump to the other side. State your name, a quick reason why you are here and your question. My name is kris. Thank you very much for being here this evening. The question i have i feel like i am part of the caring majority and support all of these issues. I think some of the pushback i hear when i talk to neighbors and friend is not that they dont support medicare for all and theyre even willing to pay for it as well as these other issues. They seem to have a concern does to family dynamics. When everything gets pushed over the coming professional caregivers. I hear that talking to my neighbors. That, i dontard have a good thing to say. In michigan, we had a home. Ealth Care Organization specifically it was family members that were actually getting paid to stay home and take care of their loved one. It may be a child, it may be someone that required longterm care. Instead of bringing an outside home, we trained family members and paid them. It was a very small amount. It covered transportation, the basics. It wasnt anything to get rich on. Many were grandchildren taking care of grandparents. Them. With many of they were organizing around this before the union and others were broken up. Interests corporate that did not want to see people moving away from Nursing Homes and facilities that created a revenue stream. It is up to us to see what that model looks like. It can be family members, it can be people of your choosing. We need to be able to provide for that caregiver, no matter who it is. It was wonderful because they had access to specific training through the state. It was really pushed forward within the agreement. Cpr, allill teach you of these other processes to make sure you are qualified. It is an option. We can have this be part of the plan. [applause] spot on. Just like the congresswoman said, we talk about professionalism. You talk about people who in the beginning we were just doing the basic daily needs of our parents and we stayed home. That money was not that money was not a livable wage. If people are staying home to provide care to a family member, where does the livable wage come from . Shortage,e have this we have to include the livable wages within the union, the right to form a union. Chose to become a home carer, i was already working in the health care field. I had to come out of that job that was wellpaying and had great benefits to take care of my ailing grandmother. I became part of the working poor. As we look at this, we have to include livable wages, benefits, unionized jobs, and understand this is needed. It is the core of our society right now. [applause] question on this side. She can talk as long as she wants. Cassandra walker of Highland Park. You, tlaibme to tell , hello. We help people who have problems with the department of human services. I have recently seen members coming in who are having problems getting health care. Gotten gentleman who had his red and blue card. But he has to have a long transplant. He has to get extra coverage. When he applied for it, they denied him, saying he made too much. 4,000 a year. 1 but insurance and doctors are telling him he needs extra coverage for them to do lung surgery. The provider to service, i had a woman who went to a hearing on the matter because the doctor did not specify or circle the thing she needed. She is on oxygen, so she is exhausted when it comes to doing things moving, really. They denied her services. Now we have to go and reapply for the services. Not only are they not paying the people well, but they are also denying people the services they need even when the doctors specify that they need the help. I do want to emphasize this. Raise your hand if you understand what i mean. Coverage does not mean youre saved. There is this movement by congress before i got there, lets just cover more people. Realize the coverage is lower. You are paying more out of your pocket. When we passed the Affordable Care act of course it was great, but not perfect. Private Health Care Companies are making record profits. They have not made this amount of money ever. I want you to know we covered 25 more of our neighbors, and yes it did save lives. We have to admit it has. Not only many stories, the copay, the deductible, it is such a cycle of poverty. Many folks are paying deductibles as if they are mortgages. They cannot buy their own home. We see less and less homeownership, especially in communities of color, because of the high price of health care. Medicare for all essentially, if you are sick and need a medical service, you will automatically get it, right . Sayo you have to call and or is it up to the doctor to say if you need a new long, lung, or is there another your crack . That is oversimplified somewhat. But it is true medicare will cover more people and it gets rid of copays, deductibles and so forth, it is a singlepayer system. Yes, it would transition away from these kind of health care aans that basically do become challenge an issue for people to survive. Bear access to longterm care which prevents them from living longer because they do not have access to it because medicare does not cover now. There is pushback. All, no for now for more deductibles or premiums. It is a system of expanding what we currently have, but closer to a singlepayer system, closer to universal health care. I do not think anything will be perfect, but one thing i ask my colleagues to recognize is that it is broken still. It is very broken. Until we not allow corporate entities to help write these bills, it will continue to create loopholes and more of a forprofit system for health care, versus us trying to circumvent that and say, no, there has to be Humane Health Care for our residents, first, period. It does mean it will not be profit driven anymore. That would probably include your a lungwho had al ung transplant. Your friend would be covered because it would not be based on current coverage, but expanded coverage which would not require bureaucracy and red tape he has to go through now. The government is not looking to make money from the system, just to be clear . It is not profit driven . What i mean right now is many of our private health care getems many people through the Affordable Care act, through that or private employment, all of those systems right now i have people whoing for the big three, were literally working in terms of how much theyre taking out of their pockets for health care, they are still the working income level. Would notsaying is, i say that. I do not know what to call it, but medicare for all is expanding what we have now but for more people. It takes away the age requirement. It talks about specifically being able to do what we have toe with prescription drugs, do the bidding similar to what we do with veterans so people can have access to prescription drugs. All of those systems in place now driven by private health plans that are not working for our residents anymore. I lived in ontario in canada. I got sick. I went to the hospital, i got service. It was not a long time and i never received a bill. It does work. [applause] hi. Hi. I do not have a question. My name is laura. I wanted to piggyback on what congresswoman said. I work for a Financial Services company. They havei work with boats and go to europe and i am the receptionist. I am making less than i have ever made in this industry. I have been in this industry since 1978. I get five days off a year and i buy insurance for me and my adult children. It is 1 3 of my salary. 1 3. Right now ims post be getting tests, a mammogram. I know what that is going to cost. Because g them off working poor is a real thing. When i hear that people do not have health care it breaks my care, but i do have health and it is killing me. I cannot move out of where i am. [applause] thank you for sharing that story. A question in the back. I want to emphasize, if you do have a question, we want to prioritize those so we take advantage of this panel and their experience and expertise. I wanted to say i am a retiree from local 22, uaw. I retired in 2004. I thought i was going to live the life. It turned into a nightmare because of health care. I had to really think about what was going on and there was a group of us that got together, retirees, saying, something is really wrong here. We started looking at a program called singlepayer and we started pushing the uaw and everybody else to get as much information as we could to understand this is what we need. Even as a retiree with a socalled cadillac plan, copays and deductible kill you. You are on a fixed income. Your money does not increase every month. If you get a bill for 400 this month, where is the food coming from . You cannot do it. Even the best plans do not work. Singlepayer is the only way. Andopays, no deductibles, it takes the profit out of it. That is the real issue. These companies are making profit off of us. They always have been. We have got to convince people this is the only way. Take the profit out, lets take care of people. [indiscernible] she is right. The question becomes, at what point do we say, making profit off me getting sick is no longer morally acceptable . Show folks would ather say, i would have marginal increase in my taxes and never have to worry about a s ever again if it means every year when i pay my taxes it is included and you no longer have to make the decision feeling well. Not should i go to the doctor . Is it worth 50 . These people decisions people are making, this is the system that would try to limit that. The eliminate that. The other question about the caring economy, how do we envision an economy that is holistic in its approach of caring for people that need it and making sure those who are doing the care are thought of when we build that process . Any questions from the side . I will take one from the back. I will make it quick. I have seen you looking at your watch. My name is lauren mcgee. Is the system completely broke . I had a kidney transplant. It seemed to be pretty smooth. I had no outofpocket cost. Member i, i am a u aw member. 100 . Ills come in at i am not defending the system because i know other people have problems, too, but it seemed to go pretty smooth for me. I think it would continue to be smooth for you with medicare for all, except you would not have to pay outofpocket costs. A lot of things you might not see is being charged toward your paycheck. Take a closer look. You having access to humane Health Care System should not be based and attached to your employer. That is something i want to emphasize. The next day you could lose your employment, something could happen. You should be able to still have that procedure done without ever having to worry about that. Slma, i thought that was mandated by the government, that you have a certain amount of flmayees, you were granted. Amount ofe x employees you would have flma, is that correct . The majority of your neighbors do not have access to flma. I cannot remember the statistic i gave today, but specific folks will not have access. It is close to 60 of low income of moms goen 1 4 back to work within two weeks. I do not know if you have tried it, six weeks is the standard you hear. It is not extended to the other parent. Maybe their employer does not allow it. If you have a job and think it is part of the package, it is not. The number one of one issues i have been hearing from folks in the service industry. In majority of my residents the 13th congressional district, the majority of the people i am encountering when im talking to them do not have access to flma, but they are working. They are on the front lines of we probably touch those workers more than you realize. Not just through restaurants. Work at the, many airport and other places and do not have access to flma. Thank you for being here and thank you for your stories. I have a preexisting condition. I used obama care for a year or insureure myself myself while i was starting a company. I am in favor of medicare for all in theory. My concern that in practice it law. Be a 1000 pages long how can we be sure it will be implemented well . Are there a couple small examples that are concrete and understandable that other countries do to implement it well, or poorly, that we could avoid the examples they set . I want you also know it is our responsibility to continue to fight. Even if we pass medicare for all tomorrow we have to make sure it is implemented the right way. Various policies, even if we passed legislation today, it depends who is in ministration depend he is not there in administration. Pretend he is not there. It depends on us demanding it happens in a certain way. Taking out corporate greed, the profit driven, will give us more leverage for our families, at least for us to have a thoughtful conversation without the other side of the private Health Care System trying to gaslight us to believe it is not working, there will be long lines, but it is our responsibility. We passed the clean air act. That was a massive transformation of how we treated our air in our country. You know it is not working anymore . Permission to pollute is not working anymore. Emphasized it we to be enforceable. Currently i have corporate 5 lluters that will release 72 beyond their permit, they get 21 days to adjust it. The point is, it is our responsibility to make sure it is done in the right way. It will require changes here and goes on, but it is our responsibility to one, recognize we have a duty to hold everybody accountable. If we can all agree it is inefficient now, and this gets us closer to access and people being able to afford it finally, i think that at least opens the door to us having a real seat at the table. I wasg in the past a current state rep when this happened. Did not truly feel like we had a seat at the table at the time because profit, private Health Care Systems were at the table demanding certain things that to trulyted any way have a humane Health Care System through the Affordable Care act. Questions or comments . A lot of work to do. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. And a Community Leader Community Chair for Highland Park census 2020. Part of why i am here is to offer support for these initiatives. I am also an entrepreneur. That being said, i have a 10 month old as a single mom. Wenton as i had him, i back to work the next day and have not had a rake since. The same week my father had a series of three strokes and became totally disabled. Because my parents, both of them, were never employed as far as another employer, they were selfemployed, they barely get social security. Coulded into adult care, not afford that. So now my parents live with me fulltime and i am taking care of both my parents and my son alone. And i am nots, able to afford daycare right now i am taking time off from work and watching my dad and helping care for him. Also caring for my son. When i do go into my office my son is at work with me. My question more specifically is, how do we start mobilizing and fixing, looking at solutions for affordable daycare, and a home adult care in these types of instances . It is understanding and recognition we have to make priorities. Until we make them a priority, we will find money for it. Any time people say we cant do it i say, if we prioritize children and families have to come first. Our sick have to come first. The massiveing difference between what we find in defense funding versus human and Health Services is outstanding. People said, why did you vote for that . 732 billion for defense. We cant even get clean Drinking Water in our schools. [applause] audit,here is truly an seeing the discrepancy of what we prioritize before we put our people first the supporting ourn families, the systems that are required to be put in place, are dwindling. It is those that have versus those that dont. Starting yourtry, own business, but you also want to be a good mother and daughter. You should have the support system to do that. We are all good intended people that want to take care of our families. We should have those support networks. The majority of americans believe in it, believe these things should be prioritized and funded. Too bold. K these are i give them the story of congresswoman Shirley Chisholm who said we have to see children in schools because if we do not, they are not going to learn. Children who are hungry cannot learn. She persisted and we got free lunches for kids in schools. We cannot imagine not having free lunches for kids in schools today. They get fed twice. We do have to worry about quality because the quality is getting worse, folks. I thought it was bad when i was a kid. Have ant is we responsibility i think to recognizing there is a crisis and childcare is a crisis. Health care is a crisis. Until we do that, we are never going to be able to resolve it. This is a good story march reading month i have a lot of schools, so we go into april and so forth. I go into second and third grade classes and read. The kids get excited. I show them where i work. Or i read the legend of mackinac island. Kids, am done i asked the do you know what a member of congress does . Someone mentioned the president or washington, d. C. Or something. Also, how many of you have had asthma . 1 3 of the class will raise their hand, no matter where i am at. Nott now wayne county is complying with sulfur dioxide levels. I tell them one of the things i work on is making sure we have clean air because we cannot eject it out. Maybe can do that with water. Was youre kids, when i age we used to go to restaurants all the time. You know how you go with your parents, and they would nod their heads. They will ask you how many people in your party . You know what they used asked me when i was a little girl . They would ask, smoking or nonsmoking section . They used to smoke at restaurants. They are like, nuhuh. And airplanes. They are like, no way and hospitals. What . Years before, we knew secondhand smoking was killing people. It was worse than actually smoking cigarettes. Corporations gas lighted us, toe businesses are going shut down, casinos. We can still make a smoking ban by the way. God, it will be awful. No, no. You not imagine having can you imagine not having the smoking ban . You all know because you have asthma, it is so bad outside you cannot go to school because of the asthma attack. We have got to do something about these kind of crises. I tell you these stories because it is going to be a hard fight. It is going to take us a while to get this win, but we are going to win and hold the administration accountable. [applause] we are incredibly lucky to have rashida and congress fighting for these issues. What i think is more incredible on the groundlks right now fighting to make sure situations like you are and where you have a 10monthold child and a dad with a disability, and we can take care of them. Ks on the panel, however how many know what the Caring Coalition is . The caring Majority Coalition is a group of organizers who are fighting to make sure that the federal government and State Government here in michigan are going to do the research, the investment, to look at how we actually address this issue because it is a crisis, as the congresswoman said. We have folks from mothering justice and michigan united at the forefront of this caring Majority Coalition. If one representative from each of that can just quickly speak up on what the work is you are doing and how people in this crowd can get involved in that caring Majority Coalition work. Any of our panelists . For the caring majority on our end, what were doing as a team is formulating panels and speaking and having conversations with legislators about the medicare expansion. People in the state of michigan who have children that need these extra dollars so you can continue to work so you can pay someone to come in who was qualified, certified, to care for your loved ones, this is what we are trying to bring to their attention. We are fighting hard, talking hard and we will not give up. We know how important it is to have this money, this program expanded, to have these dollars put in place to make sure the money is thre there. This is what were doing with the caring majority. On behalf of michigan united and the caring majority, we are holding listening sessions for people to share their stories. We are focusing on the 2020 election and we want to ask those candidates, what is your platform . . Re you going to stand with us specific question of what we are not getting now and can you help move it along . We have the kick off in june. We will do this all the way until december. If you want to do it, youre invited to come out, share your story. We have Conference Calls where you can join in. This is what we are talking about. Exhibit, 30 home care workers shared their. Tories they are putting together a traveling exhibit of women and men who have shared their stories about what home care workers go through daily and the struggles are hard. Definitely get involved. It is not just home care workers. This is for everybody, the community as a whole to share your story. Be as specific with the candidates and elect the candidate that will take care of our issues. Good afternoon everybody. Ready. Fired up and 24 at Mary Grove College at 9 00 a. M. Until 4 00 we have our mothers summit. We want to come up with a solution. We talk about paid sick leave. Leave, butid sick affordable childcare. We are stepping up, stepping out and we will have a voice on august 24. Mark your calendars. Come out and support us. Not just support us. Tell a friend and bring a friend. That is what mother justice is doing. I can just say i am still fairly new to working with the mother and justice. My introduction to what they do was called a mama conversation. An invitation to discuss a particular issue. Whichcuss snap benefits, is a food access issue. Was enough toion enlighten me about the other work they do in terms of training mothers, educating, mobilizing, and enough for me to say i want to go further and see what i can do to contribute to that work and here we are. Wow. [applause] one more thing. Do you have to be a mother to come to the mother conference on august when he for . 24. Ugust we are on facebook, twitter. Up, sayingding mothering justice is not backing down. We are coming to washington, d. C. Very soon. We are not backing down. Do you have to be a mother . Senator Camilla Harris come. Ala harris to no, they have a strong presence already in washington, d. C. [applause] , thank you, mothering justice for uplifting the incredible work you are doing. From 9 00 to 4 00 at Mary Grove College. It is completely free and you do not have to be a mother, i believe. If you are an ally, you can come. I will be there. I expect all of you to show up mama summit. We are going to take several more questions. Andll go two from this side two from this side. I am very concerned about what is going on on capitol hill with the current administration, where they are chiseling very slowly at the Affordable Care act. That is causing millions of people, probably 30 Million People, they said 20 million thatpast february 2019, people had lost their insurance. Now the federal court judge in texas is saying the Affordable Care act is unconstitutional. Andcurrent administration the federal court judges across the nation and in various states are working to eliminate the Affordable Care act, which leaves a lot of people who are seriously ill, unable to be treated for their illnesses, uninsured and no insurance whatsoever. I do not know what the Democratic Party as far as legislators in the u. S. Senate, i do not know what they plan to do, but we need to work harder to make sure each and everyone in this country will have Health Insurance like other places abroad who have insurance for all. Dental insurance. People are dying. On that note i want to say september 14 i am having a medical forum talking about the disparity for people of color not getting the insurance they need, the care they need. My son is dead right now because of what happened to him at a hospital and clinic. Keep in mind it is all about saving lives. We need to come together and not be separate. No manny no matter how Many Organizations are out here. I am asking for you all to come to Harper Church september 14, reclaim your right to health. Thank you so much. [applause] i will come back to this side, i promise. We have a spanish speaker who wants to ask a question. I will have her ask her question in spanish. We do have a translator to translate the spent translate. Tell us your name. Rosa. [speaking spanish] she was saying her mother is diabetic. She is an undocumented immigrant and only has emergency medicaid because she is undocumented. Emergency medicaid does not cover her insulin. She has to pay outofpocket, which is very expensive. Sometimes she cries because it is out of control and she cannot afford to pay for her insulin. The question is, this bill being drafted, will it cover women like her mother and other undocumented immigrants that have Health Problems . Unfortunately we do have a broken immigration system where we have neighbors right now line. It is there is no i was an immigration lawyer for a couple years and i would have the same circumstances, completely different outcomes. We need to fix our immigration system because someone like your mother will still not have access to health care until we can create a pathway for citizenship. Many of them have relatives that are u. S. Citizens that can apply for them, but they cannot adjust their status here. We have children where this is all they know and they need access to a pathway to citizenship. There are you extremely generous people who may be able to help your mother and we can reach out to them. Either private individuals who may be able to help you get the care you need, but i think all of us in this room need to understand yes, we talk about a humane Health Care System, but i can tell you i just came from Calhoun County yesterday. Our system is so deteriorated we are violating International Human rights. Woman claiming to be a u. S. Citizen slept on the floor for three days next to a toilet in an overcrowded cell right here in michigan. We have a huge crisis with regard to our immigration system. Enforcement is not fixing it. It needs to stop. We need to have a pathway especially. So many of our neighbors are married to u. S. Citizens or have a green card family member. We have children not able to get into the pathway because they did not have the right lawyer. Thinkhey get in line they there is no line. You should not have to wait years to get in front of an immigration judge. You should not have to wait 20 years. There are cases in 20 years before you can be reunited with your u. S. Citizen brother or sister. That is the reality, that we have a system that has not had an overhaul. Approach, theyy want to dehumanize and it has gotten worse with this administration, the leadership instead they crated i. C. E. I. C. E. Did not make us safer. Creating checkpoints in Southwest Detroit on michigan avenue, i. C. E. Operations in front of schools, which is against their own rules, they need to pull back completely, be abolished. We do not need another lay are of militarization of our communities. [applause] fact that we do have a system. Borderd to agents, patrol, field agents, i. C. E. Agents. I will say the system is broken. They say, absolutely. Many of them tell me we were not hired, trained, to deal with this deterioration of a system. Throwing money is not going to fix it. You, the people that benefit the most by our broken immigration system are the same that benefit from most of our Health System that is broken. Off of workers in the shadows, the fact that even henry ford used to go to the border. It never matched up to the demand for our country. This is something we all need to realize. Yesterday talking to four individuals in Calhoun County i realized how dehumanizing it has unbearable. I felt so exhausted hearing from a woman who was trafficked between the age of 10 and 12. A survivor of Human Trafficking held in detention. Crying and tears, being separated from her sixyearold daughter. Until we can fix it, we can never take care of her mother. Them make our this is a look like system that if you do not neighborhoods completely turned into chaos. I appreciate your courage for speaking up. Please come talk to me afterwards and i will do my best to find someone who will help your mother get access to her insulin. [applause] i feel like this is the best time to ask this question. I do not know when we will see each other again. I am here every week. Questions. Wo how do you feel about mass incarceration . Especially on people of color . Had that be had that been brought up in congress to slow down mass incarceration . People get detained from being in another country. I know so money people are detained for senseless things that was not worth it or placed in a Virtual World of not being able to get health care, affordable housing. I wonder if congress is working on that. I am very muchou against and have supported initiatives to give no more private prisons in our country. There should not be a forprofit scheme. The same people detaining immigrants at the border, the same people incarcerating people, the same broken system of mass incarceration. We saw it yesterday. The same forprofit industries are benefiting the most from mass incarceration. When folks tell me about facial recognition in downtown detroit and all over the neighborhoods, they want more surveillance. By the way, facial recognition is flawed. We introduced a ban on facial recognition. No federal funding for that. [applause] money for using this forprofit companies coming to test this stuff in our communities of color that is exactly what they are doing. Rate on peopler of color, especially africanamerican women. Facebook photo, your dmv records, all of it in a database, a forprofit entity, coming to the city of detroit saying, we want to put this in, help decrease crime. Even the Greenlight Program in detroit has not decreased crime. Instead of spending money, it it should be going to transportation. It is not just cameras, it is a system over criminalizing. If you look at the money, why arent we spending on education and housing . Absolutely. They have the authority. This is not money theyre saying no, you made a conscious choice to use a broken Surveillance System that basically creates a National Database that will misidentify people. Instead, why dont you spend the schools . Go into children stop allowing to drink leadinfested water . May be then they can actually learn in school. How can they learn if they are literally getting poisoned . Understand thei intersectionality. Every time i talk to immigrant Rights Groups they are starting to wake up the last few years. They do not talk about fixing immigration without talking about mass and corporate mass incarceration. The same people profit off them. All of it is driven by corporate greed, corporate assault on working families. They are not putting facial recognition in Oakland County or anywhere else. They are making money. You do not see them building new jails. Continue fighting, not just increasing access to homeownership, but pushing against using Credit Scores for auto insurance. They use it for employment, everything. All of that is not what it was intended to be used for. Police officera he could not but, a Police Officer because of something on his credit report. How is that allowed . All these systems and barriers focused on helping people rather than incarcerating them is just unbelievably inhumane but also unjust. That is why we cannot get out of this if they gaslight us to believe they put this stupid greenlight and a camera on a corner that somehow is going to save us. It is not saving us. Dont you dare support this over orminalization of our people surveillance. It is not working. How about fixing 36 District Courts . [applause] this is what they need to be spending money on. Not things that criminalize our people. Thank you. Thank you. Two more just take questions from the crowd and we will bounce it back to you . Two more take questions on the congresswoman will give her closing remarks. Hey, congress wonder woman. [indiscernible] where is the money for the new jail . Thee is the person who took money from the city of detroit for a new jail that looks like a hole in the ground, like a meteorite hit it . Who is accountable for that . This obama care or aca, she talked about obama tried to do that. Decimating it, democrats and republicans. Lets not get that twisted. What theyre offering is better, but at the same time you still have to hold your people accountable. You have to get out here and vote. [applause] she cannot do it by herself. She cannot do it by herself. The one thing this ministration administration has us doing. Trutha demonstration of that was there all along. You all just woke up. I have been woke. I commend you, mother. I have four sons. They all are college graduated. Is broken. Lma i had 17 surgeries because i have a bone disorder. My husband could not work. I had to work for 25 years. I used it up to the point so i had to go to my personal bank. To the point it was a strike against me. When i signed up for cobra and my husband was not working, i had to support my entire family which was 500 a month and i am only getting 66. 6 of the short term disability. I understand your plight. Mother,derstand you, and the young man you, you go for what is yours, brother. Never let them tell you what youre worth is. Know your role and do it well. That. N to thank you. I love the health profession. I have been in it for years. I am a person that believes in 150 patient quality care. You have to understand. Educating young saying nursing makes money, we need to erase the word customers and put patients first. Fact she has copd, well over 500 somethinger pounds. Me. Cannot say anything to you have put a limitation on her. You know exactly how much she will spend. But westand the plight, need better education. Initiative to take and be proactive, and get the information and vote. Locally, votete every day, every other day, on holidays, on your birthday, on your break, when you get up, when you sit down. Vote. [applause] [laughter] all right. I would drop the mic, but it is not mine. The folks at cspan would not be too happy. I will take one more question on this side. We will pass it back to the congresswoman. I said on this side, but i will do two more. Then we have to wrap up so we can respect everyones time. We did say the event would end at 8 00. We have seven minutes to crunch three questions. Question. Quick in respect to all of the health care things, i have been in the field over 30 years and i have worked with every possible field , every possible area of Health Care Including insurance and managed health years ago. In assisting questions patients and clients in trying to navigate health care and all the changes coming down the tube now, one of the biggest issues that has come across my desk and working with people who have chronic lifethreatening illness, like end stage renal disease who may have Medicare Advantage plans, they will not cover that unless they have it prior to getting diagnosed. They who do not have b,ve straight medicare a and and do not have a secondary except for medicaid. They get the wonderful spend down. I do not understand how somebody making 1400 in an entire household it started with this entire thing about skin in the game. They politicized it. Spend down has big been one of the Biggest Barriers for residents. Spend can you give 1000 down to someone making 1400 a month and it starts over every month . These are lifethreatening procedures they need. Topend my day trying negotiate things with providers, getting things done for them. I am all in favor of medicare for all. Problem is we are in a Capitalistic Society and we will have to change and really fight for change to get people to understand we are talking about people. We are not talking about case numbers, billing codes, cp2 codes, any of that. Enough with the percentage crap. We are talking human bodies, human feelings, and life or death sentences here. That is going to be a tough change when we are talking to people just use to their bottom line. We are really going to have to fight hard. [applause] i promised two more. One in the front, one in the back. She is screaming at me from across. [laughter] hello, everybody. Good evening. Hey girl. I went through, a lot. I am deaf on both sides. Only one ear i can really hear out of. I had trouble getting hearing aids. I will fight it. The insurance i have is molina. They are fighting for me. By the grace of god, they got that hearing aid forming. For me. I was getting frustrating frustrated. I would listen and not hear anything. It is hard. People would ask, how did you get your hearing aid . My insurance fought for me. Trying to get hearing aids for people who cannot hear it all and i feel bad for them because i know what they are going through. I went through the same thing. [indiscernible] [applause] congresswoman, the plan you are fighting for, medicare for all, does it include hearing aids . I believe it does. It is one of the things we talked about right away. Absolutely. One more question. Then we will wrap it up. I am sorry if i did not get to you. If you can nab the congresswoman before she goes, good luck. My name is bob and i am a clinical social worker. I worked in health care all my life. My question is this we are a country of walls. In this state we used to have only two insurance companies, one was aetna and one was blue cross blue shield. The law was very clear, they were for nonprofit. We had health care that was given to people. We had health care that was considered public health, and therefore people got services. Country changed the laws to a forprofit system. How do we get people to recognize that and to get so pissed off that we close every airport in this country, like hong kong has . Theyshould be pissed off are being killed by these forprofit systems. How do we do that . I can tell you seeing something, somebody like me getting elected, people really need to try to believe in the impossible. Right now you think it is impossible. It is not. It may not require closing and airport, but things like that are important to elevate a voice and demand the truth gets out. The misinformation out there about medicare for all, i cannot even keep track, the continued misleading information about medicare for all. Intentional misleading information about paid leave for all by the michigan restaurant association. We have to demand it. It is not just about electing people like me who will not sell out. Corporate pac money. I want to do a specific training when they go in vote. You have to find out if it is the geo group. Funded theople Inauguration Committee for tron. In the meantime, hold us accountable. Protest me. Comment demand may. Do not ever stop holding any of us accountable. Let me tell you, the people power we talk about, it is so, so real. That i think sometimes we forget, we have these town house, we talk to each other peer we realize this information. But do you know how may people are still waiting for you to call them a knock on their door and say, we are going to go to the airport. Are we going to go and do this because this is what is happening. When i went doortodoor i learned more about insulin and rationing and people going into shock and everything not because i went to the henry ford Health System that is supposed be a nonprofit, right . I went and spoke to my residence who taught me exactly what is happening on the front lines. Because one provider is telling one thing. Next week it is a completely different approval process. And you know who told me . Residence. Those are the ones who have the truth and those of the information on the stories you heard appears what we need to elevate. We do it through protest and through sometimes yes, civil disobedience. And demanding to be heard. And all of that is your freedom. Here in this country. To basically call us out pretty to basically demand it. To basically not only just devoted against us or vote for certain people he believe in, but also to go down to your city halls and your, the halls of congress, and demand it. I love doing sit ins. I do not care. I will get arrested tomorrow again. [applause] but it really takes Movement Work right here, bob read bob you are one of the first people to speak to me in a union hall about making sure this was a real medicare for all not one that was going to sell us out to the forprofit Health Care Plan system. You wont made me tread very carefully, right . You told me expect this because this is what they did last time. You said expect this because look out for global budgeting you taught me that you think it did not make a difference . It did. I had never heard of those terminologies but for the fact that you demanded a meeting with me. You do not have to demand it, it was pretty easy. You got a meeting with me, then you educated me. If you do not give up on the. You do not assume i would know. Were providing that information to me directly. Please know that what a great opportunity right now, close to 100 new memos of congress, that you can touch now. You has not been completely know, bought off. Exactly. You can go to them now, and ask them. Theres a bunch of new members. In this michigan delegation. That many of them are waiting for you to call them and knock down at doors and say we need medicare for all. We need you to know this and that. And this is what we are inspecting. But it really requires all of of, so much wealth information about has. Institutional knowledge that cannot be taught by other colleagues, but by the people that have been living and breathing it and fighting forcing a pair for over 20 years fighting for singlepayer for over 20 years. Know that you have the strength of the purse to demand many members of congress to hear all of you in regard to that we need a humane Healthcare System that does not feed into another system that is really covered, but forprofit. So thank you all so much for having me. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] so, thank you congresswoman i want to thank our panelists who came out today from mothering justice. And from michigan united. And from mothering justice. For coming out here and sharing the story and doing the work. You all have an opportunity. Today exactly what congresswoman tlaib just talked about. Making sure we are having conversations with our elected officials. They hear our stories there they know are question spirit so when they go back to d. C. Their fighting for us, and not the special interests. We talked about the caring Majority Coalition. Everything a one of you in this room can be part of that coalition. If you want to learn more about it, we will have folks standing next to the cookie table to share a low bit more about what that caring majority is. I want to just close with this quick point before i pass it to give it our closing remarks. Every single one of you here know the impact of what we have to do and was is at stake. Talk about what can actually get done. There is always this conversation of we are not going to be able to get medicare for all. We have to be your realistic. I want us to think about what that means. Theyre pushing a politics of the probable. What can probably get done with the system as it is. But everything a one of you in this room, i do not think like that. You think of, the politics of the possible. That if we come together and we organize, and we hopeful scannable, what should the system look like . As itdevelop a system should be and not as it currently is. That is what every one of you will be doing here today. We want you to stay gauge with michigan united. We want you to stay gauge with mothering justice. We want you to stay in touch to make surelaib she hears issues we want to fight for, a people centered agenda that does not focus on diagnostic codes and qualifications of what can get covered, but a human centered system that we make sure we are caring for people who are caring for us. And that they have the tools necessary to care for us when we need it. This is what everything a one if you came in here for, and this is the work we are going to continue to do through that caring Majority Coalition. And everything in between. I believe she said she did wrap up. If you have any final words . Much to the so michigan majority for engaging caring united. This is exactly how it starts. Because im going to connect them with giselle with be white p100. Because we have active byp 100[ . ] thank you mayor for so much. [applause] yes, labor day. Just want to thank him and the incredible staff here for hosting us. City, onevery small of my smallest cities of the 13th conventional district. Congressional district. It takes a lot of resources for them to put this event together. We want to appreciate his leadership in opening the doors here for us here. So it and kim so much. [applause] so we thank him so much. Mayore again, thank you and the city of allen park for opening up the space to have our town hall. One more round of applause for our panelists, folks were in the trenches and organizing. And one final round of applause for our congresswoman in the 13th congressional district, r Rashida Tlaib [applause] all right. So is a part of the caring majority . [applause] who here is a part of that caring majority . [applause] and he wants to make this caring majority bigger . [applause] so we all know what you have to do. These folks up here cannot do it alone. Everyone of you have to keep recruiting, sending that message. This is probably the most exciting cspan event that they have had on tv. There is no party like a 13th district party. Way to go everybody. Thank you all for coming. [applause] and with that, i want to do one final push so all of you can sit with me together, on the count of three, we say we are the caring majority. All right. 13 majoritye caring thank you and good night. Announcer this weekend, while congress is on recess, the group moms across america is holding rallies to require congress to pass laws requiring background