Fellow Members of the Maine Direct Care Workers Union, I'm writing to update you on our union's efforts to ensure quality, affordable health care for everyone in Maine, including us. Although our health care legislation on behalf of direct care workers was voted down in the last legislative session, we're not going away. Instead, we've retooled and broadened our focus to push for health care for everyone in Maine. This approach appears to provide the best opportunity for us to achieve some level of health security. Our union is working with the Kennebec Valley Organization, a group made up of faith communities, labor unions and other determined to improve life in Maine. Members of the Kennebec Valley Organization have been holding roundtable discussions to gather and hear personal stories about health care, good and bad. These stories will form the basis for a comprehensive health care campaign in the coming months. I'm asking for your help by taking just five minutes of your time to share your health care story. I know that we all have some very compelling health care stories. My health care story, for example, is one of ups and downs. I had health insurance through my husband when he worked at Blue Seal Feeds. He left that job and started up his own business. With that change, we now buy our own health insurance. Quite frankly, it is horrible. It is very expensive, $300 per month, with a high deductible of $10,000 per yer per family member and it only covers catastrophic care. Since November of 2007, I've been through multiple screenings for ovarian cancer. I am grateful to report that I am cancer free. The downside: These screenings are not covered by my health insurance; it doesn't cover any diagnostic services. The bill is upwards of $3,000. That's my health care story. Please share yours, such as being with or without health insurance, or how having it or not has affected you, your family and your work. Sharing your story is easy. Send me an email at helen.hnsn@gmail.com. As part of this health care campaign, the Kennebec Valley Organization will hold a health care forum on June 18th with policy makers. Then in the fall, the group will contact candidates for the Maine Legislature and Congress to sign its resolve of health care for everyone. This is all exciting work. Please be part of it by sharing your health care story. Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you. In Solidarity, Helen Hanson Maine Direct Care Workers Union MSEA-SEIU Local 771 (MSEA-SEIU Local 1989)