Organization pushes all presidentialcandidates to come up with health plan

Citing a need for affordable health care for all Nevada residents, the Nevada for Health Care group has been canvassing the state to ask people to stress the importance of health care to presidential candidates.

On Thursday afternoon, representatives from Nevada for Health Care visited Pizza Barn in Fallon to urge voters to support candidates who have a health care plan.

Samantha Galing Gaddy, campaign manager for Nevada for Health Care, said the group was not supporting any candidate or party.

“We want candidates to come up with real solutions for health care,” she said.

Representatives from Nevada for Health Care wore shirts on Thursday that read: “I’m a health care voter.”

Nevada for Health Care is part of the Americans for Health Care national campaign, which is a project of the Service Employees International Union.

The small number of people who showed up signed petitions and pledged to let presidential candidates know how important health care is to them.

“We are having health care voters sign a pledge that they will only vote for a candidate who has a health care plan in place,” she said.

Gaddy said her group is not pushing for any particular solution as long as one is either in place or being formulated.

She said health care is only a small part of the equation because the cost needs to be controlled and be affordable for every Nevada resident.

“We are not saying it has to be any way,” she said, and added health care has been labeled the top issue for both Republicans and Democrats.

“It really crosses all lines,” she said. Most residents have a family member who has been exposed to not having health care, she added.

In Nevada, according to the groups literature, 496,000 people are uninsured, including 101,000 children. Since 2000, average health premiums for working Nevada residents have risen 58 percent.

Candidates, she said, will notice the importance of Nevada Health Care when they come out to speak because people will be there to remind them of the importance.

If presidential candidates realize voters will only support them if the issue is addressed, they likely will come up with a plan, Gaddy said.

“What we want is the presidential candidates to talk about it,” she said. “We want to know what kind of plan they have in place.”

Nevada voters also want to know how any health plan would be funded.

“Where is the money going to come from?” she asked. “We want to hear all of the components.”