The Community Speaks Out in Favor of Ammiano’s Healthcare Legislation

ACORN members joined with their allies from The San Francisco Labor Council, SEIU, UNITEHERE Local 2, Senior Action Network and Young Workers United to counter the business community’s relentless attacks on Supervisor Ammiano’s historic healthcare legislation. Under Ammiano’s legislation any San Francisco worker who works more than 80 hours a month for a business with more than 20 employees would receive healthcare coverage.

Raul Torres, a member of ACORN who lives in the Mission said “I’ve lived and worked in San Francisco for the last nine years and all that time I have not had health coverage. In 2004 I had an accident and as a result I have a bill from General Hospital that I can’t afford to pay for $7,000.”

T.J. Johnston, a member of ACORN who lives in Western Addition and works for a Telephone Research company in San Francisco, testified before the Board of Supervisor’s Budget and Finance Committee “Like 16,000 other people who work and live in San Francisco, I am working on borrowed time. I've gone several years without access to health care and can't remember the last time I went to the doctor for a checkup.”

Giselle Quezada, a member of ACORN from Oceanview who represented the community on the Mayor’s Universal Healthcare Council, said “For the last five years my daughter has suffered with a serious health condition. And yet despite the fact that my daughter works more than 80 hours a month for a company with more than 20 employees she doesn’t have health coverage. I never thought this would hit so close to home and that I might be forced to take out another mortgage on my house to help her cover her health care costs.”

After the hearing ACORN members delivered over 500 hundred letters of support from the community urging the Mayor to support Supervisor Ammiano’s “Worker Healthcare Security Ordinance” and thanking Supervisors Dufty and Ma for co-sponsoring the ordinance.