By Joyce Kryszak
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wbfo/local-wbfo-769097.mp3
Buffalo, NY – The Western New York Health Care Campaign says most state legislators score poorly for promoting better health care for New Yorkers.
The report card released Thursday scores lawmakers on how well they are doing at making quality health care available and affordable to everyone. According to Doctor David Holmes, they are failing.
Holmes works at Good Neighbors, a free health clinic in Buffalo. He sees patients there who he says are victims of the broken health care system - people like the 52 year-old woman who died earlier this year from cervical cancer. Holmes said she had not had preventative screening for more than 20 years.
Holmes says that an estimated 22,000 people die needlessly in America every year because they have inadequate health care. But advocates said we don't need to go beyond our own community to see people suffering.
Vicki Dankanich was at the press conference with her baby boy. Dankanich said her family's health care costs doubled when her husband was forced to change jobs. She had to leave her baby with a sitter and go back to work so they could afford to pay the higher premiums, co-pays and prescriptions.
Advocates say lawmakers are not doing enough to improve things for people like Dankanich and her family. They say few lawmakers received an A plus, the highest rating given, for their efforts. Abbey Bernardis is with the League of Women Voters in Western New York. She said voters need to hold lawmakers accountable on election day.
You can find the scorecard on state lawmakers on the WNY Healthcare Campaign's web site CWRU Web serverwnycc.org
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