BRISTOL, Va. – For years, personal care assistant Loretta Johnson has lobbied for some sort of health care reform. The 62-year-old former court clerk from Lebanon, Va., can’t afford health insurance.
Last month, she stood on Capitol Hill alongside Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as he promised to pass a universal health insurance bill.
“I like being there where history is being made everyday,” she said Friday. “Now, I am a part of history.”
On Friday, she joined the last leg of a statewide tour by a political activist group bent on seeing the bill become reality. Members of Virginia Change That Works spent the last week driving an ambulance from Fairfax to Southwest Virginia. Along the way, they logged 1,500 miles.
The Falls Church, Va.-based group picked an ambulance “to convey the urgency and immediacy for health care reform,” group spokesman Trevor Johnson said.
They stopped at newspapers along the route, and at each stop introduced someone from the circulation area with an insurance-related story to tell.
The Bristol Herald Courier, which was the last stop on the statewide tour, was reintroduced to Johnson. A July article spotlighted her D.C. lobbying efforts.
She quit her job as a clerk in 2000 to take care of her sick husband until his death in 2005. Two years ago, she started her job as a personal care assistant. But her employer does not have an insurance plan and she can’t afford one on her own.
The dilemma led her to lobbying.
“It’s something that I love,” she said.
mowens@bristolnews.com | (276) 791-0698
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