A Healthcare Forum in South Milwaukee for Wisconsin Assembly District 21 candidates drew a large crowd on Wednesday Oct 22, 2008. The Forum was sponsored by Healthcare United and Wisconsin Citizen Action. Candidate Glen Brower and State Senator Jeff Plale fielded questions from participants on both national and state solutions to the healthcare crisis.
Healthcare United activists were out in full force. Cindy Kroll, RN who works as a hospice nurse, asked the candidates what they would do about the “profiteering” she witnesses everyday in the healthcare industry. She cited the large profit margins by health insurers, and the profits and building and technology arms race of the hospital industry while they scale back on nursing care for patients. One speaker talked about her experience with the individual insurance market and how she and her family have gone into near bankruptcy and do not have access to healthcare for their illnesses due to being rejected for pre-existing conditions. She noted that it was this same individual market for health insurance that the McCain plan hopes to expand.
Mardell Kaluzny, RN, a retired Nurse Educator and a Republican stated that she spent a lot of time educating legislators on healthcare both Democrats and Republicans. Mardell, a Republican, feels that healthcare is a complicated policy area and its up to healthcare professionals like her to explain how the system works.

In addition to all the candidate races in Wisconsin, there is a healthcare referendum on the November 4 ballot. The referendum asks for affordable and accessible health care to all Wisconsin residents at the same quality that state legislators get.