Liz Beatty's Fundraiser for the VWC!

The Vermont Workers' Center has been a part of my life since I was a kid. At 12 years old I was going to rallies with my parents and brother, rallying for workers' rights, a livable wage and healthcare- struggles that have formed me into the person I am today.

Even through all of the rallies, pickets and organizing meetings I witnessed as a child I still grew up watching everyone I know struggle through a horribly corrupt for profit health insurance system in Vermont and across the United States. I watched my family struggle through medical debt, my friends get sick and in some cases pass away because of inadequate and unaffordable services for mental health and addiction support and at just 24 I started to rack up (into the thousands of dollars) my own medical debt as I battled Lyme disease. 

We've been fighting for decades for our basic human right to healthcare. But this is more than a battle for health insurance or universal primary care- this is a movement of poor and working class people coming together over a common struggle and a unified vision. It's about people across Vermont coming together across difference to fight for a better world. Here we believe that starts with everyone's right to healthcare- because each and every one of us has been impacted by profit driven health insurance markets blocking our ability to access the care we need- everyone feels it and we need everyone to fight for it.

This year I am joining with dozens of other Vermont Workers' Centers members and leaders to Raise Our Voices as we share our stories and fundraise to sustain our work with the Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign. Please join us by sharing your story and making a donation.