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Group urges Cramer to sponsor health bill

Demonstrators push for national insurance act

By Steve Doyle / Huntsville Times

HUNTSVILLE, AL -- Sign-waving demonstrators who want Congress to pass a universal health insurance bill rallied Tuesday outside U.S. Rep. Bud Cramer's Huntsville office.

Reese Danley-Kilgo, one of the organizers, said the group is asking Cramer, a Democrat, to co-sponsor the "United States National Health Insurance Act." It would create a publicly financed, privately delivered health care system to cover necessary medical care for every American, without co-payments or deductibles.

"It would leave out insurance companies and pharmaceutical corporations and just be an arrangement between the people who need health care and all the rest of us in the country," said Danley-Kilgo, a retired University of Alabama in Huntsville professor.

She and other demonstrators met with Cramer's district director, Jim McCamy, at the National Children's Advocacy Center on Pratt Avenue, where Cramer has an office. They gave McCamy information about the bill, plus a petition signed by about 50 people and a copy of "Sicko," controversial filmmaker Michael Moore's documentary about America's health care system.

McCamy did not immediately return a call from The Times.

"We'll be going back" to Cramer's office, said Danley-Kilgo, a member of the North Alabama Peace Network. "Part of the strategy is letting him know there are people who are very eager to get this bill co-sponsored and passed. It's long, long overdue."