Annette John-Hall: Parade of anger over health-care mess

WASHINGTON - Through ice and mud, rain and biting cold, through the worst winter in recent memory, they walked 135 miles for health-care reform.

You would have thought that after such a grueling journey, they would have needed a doctor themselves.

But, somehow, the eight Pennsylvanians who had trekked from Philadelphia over the last week had more energy than the 200 or so who had come by car, bus, or train from across the country to rally with them Wednesday at the Capitol.

Along the way, the walkers heard story after story that put a human face on the health-care struggle.

Like the woman they met at a Friendly's in Delaware who was having trouble paying for her multiple-sclerosis medications.

Or the father from Georgia who pulled his truck over to tell them that he appreciated their fight because all four of his children didn't have health insurance.

Or the woman from Jessup, Md., who became so overwhelmed by what they were doing that she brought them a carnation - and then started crying.

And as they crossed into Washington, they carried with them a letter written on a napkin from a woman who had approached them at a McDonald's. Deeply burdened by medical bills, she wanted them to pass along her story to Congress.

But what most touched Antoinette Kraus was the sight of some of those very people as she looked across the crowd cheering her group.

"I was on adrenaline," said Kraus, 28, one of the walkers. "It was really moving to see them there. It's what kept me going."

Call it coincidental or divine, but you can't deny it wasn't good timing. The marchers and other reform activists showed up the day before President Obama's historic health-care summit yesterday.

All the better to help revive an issue that's been obstructed to death.

"We had to get [politicians] moving," said John Meyerson, policy director for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776 in Philadelphia, who was part of two busloads of union workers, health-care advocates, and activists who met up with the walkers Wednesday. "It's extremely frustrating, people sitting around, not doing anything. This march came out of that frustration."

We'll have to see, but seems Obama is done trying to persuade his team of rivals to do the right thing and solve the problem.

After yesterday's daylong summit, no one can say there wasn't a chance to put ideas on the table.

Democrats and Republicans all agreed health care was broken. Great. Now fix it.

It's time to put up or shut up.

Too late for Melanie Shouse, the St. Louis organizer for whom the march was dedicated. She died of breast cancer last month. Her insurance company had refused to pay for a new chemotherapy treatment recommended by her oncologist. She was 41.

The walkers gathered stories just like Shouse's all along the way and marched them over to the five senators who greeted them, including Arlen Specter, Bob Casey, and Harry Reid.

"It's just been an incredible experience," said Amy Fitzgerald, 51, a part-time concierge with no health benefits.

"What we've learned," said Iwanka Kultschyckj, 32, of Williamsport, Pa., who had to go on public assistance because of a staph infection, "is that having health care is preventive care. It's that simple."

It's too bad our politicians haven't walked even a mile in their shoes - let alone 135.

But Kraus isn't giving up hope, and she knows their voices were heard.

"I thought it was amazing that [the senators] were there and really listened to people," she said. "There's been a lot of stalling, and we just didn't know what was going to happen."

"To end up in Washington and carry the people's message to those going to the summit gives me hope," she added.

It's about focusing on the people, and not the politics.

"We're going to keep fighting to bring it home."