Michelle Obama talks health care insurance with women in Pontiac
It wasn’t the three jobs she has to work to care for her extended family, or the inability to take a vacation for the last five years. For Eloise Williams of Pontiac, the ultimate indignity came when she found a lump in her breast before she became a full-time teacher at Pontiac Northern High School.
It was a story that was repeated again and again during Michelle Obama’s hour-long discussion of issues facing working women. About 200 people gobbled up all available free tickets to attend the event at Crofoot theater in downtown Pontiac.
It was the first visit to Michigan for the wife of the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm said it was good to see the Obama campaign finally get underway in the state after a primary season in which no Democratic candidates came to Michigan because the state moved up its primary election date in violation of national party rules.
When Granholm asked how many people in the audience had been downsized or laid off or otherwise affected by the state’s lagging economy, the majority of those present raised their hands.
Francine Jones,49, of Pontiac, was laid off from her job as a payroll specialist for the city of Pontiac in November. Fortunately, she’s covered through her husband’s health insurance policy, but she said she’s still worried about the future.
Michelle Obama said her husband is the best equipped to handle the economy and how it’s affecting working women and families. She talked of the strong role models in his life, his mother and grandmother, even herself.
“He’s seen the struggles I’ve faced as a woman, the constant guilt that no matter what you do, you’re never doing enough,” she said. “Barack carries our stories and these stories have really shaped who he has become as a man.”
Obama is set to unveil his plan for helping working women at a town hall meeting todayin Fairfax, Va. Among other things, the plan would require employers to give all employees at least seven days a year of sick leave; more affordable child care and tax cuts that will help 71 million women.
That’s good news for Williams, who choked backed tears as she told her story to Obama.
Michelle Obama said it was not a role she imagined for herself.
That world has her husband as the President of the United States, she said.
Tags: barack obama, democratic candidates, economy, health, health care, health insurance, insurance, Insurance Policy, jobs
Leave a Reply