Musicians Add to Call for Medicare for All

Mike & Friends Blog

Donna Smith

Donna Smith, American SiCKO, is a national single-payer healthcare advocate and community organizer with the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee

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March 10th, 2010 2:31 AM

Musicians Add to Call for Medicare for All

By Donna Smith

This man – struggling with his own healthcare mess – is using his talents in music and composition to reach out for meaningful change in this healthcare mess.

Bob Wickline of Fox Island, WA, hopes that his music will join that of other artists all over the nation in calling for deep and lasting change in the for-profit health insurance based healthcare system in America. Music has framed the most important periods of social and political unrest and change in this nation’s history. Political and social change is often marked by the sounds of musicians who weave into lyrics the messages others present with slide shows in lecture halls or in written publications, as Bob does with his music.

With the distinctive sound that includes a touch of Bluegrass, Wickline and his family have helped record commercials and public service announcements for groups working on improved Medicare for all, single-payer health reform. They often perform at local, regional and national gatherings where they can help spread the word.

But like so many millions of people, Bob’s also has deeply personal reasons for seeking a social insurance model for reform. He worries about his own health becoming a burden to his family – and he cannot stand to think of strapping his wife and children with his medical debt. He also teaches school, and he worries about the lessons taught to our youngest citizens about truth and compassion and what it means to live in a nation that has prided itself on being a beacon of hope and opportunity for those who hunger for it so.

Wickline hopes that people will share his music far and wide and take strength from one another as the struggle for healthcare justice continues in this nation.