ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Jobs, care, and justice.
A rally cry was chanted outside of the State House in Annapolis on Monday.
Many people are worried about the future of our healthcare system in Maryland.
“My nursing home is struggling right now with not having enough staff to take care of the residents," says Rhonda White.
Healthcare was at the top of these people's minds Monday night at a rally in Lawyers Mall.
Rhonda White says since the pandemic, she's seen a major shortage of nursing home workers and other healthcare providers, and she says it's not fair to let the patients suffer.
“A lot of elderly in the nursing homes, they pay for service, and they’re not rendering, but they need to get," says Rhonda.
We spoke to a few other folks who say the state of Maryland has major work to do when it comes to the current healthcare systems in place.
People spoke about the high price of prescription drugs that they can't afford, and being denied healthcare services. Many are even disappointed with what they say is a lack of support for our healthcare workers.
“I think that the COVID pandemic showed us how much we owe the frontline workers and our healthcare workers who went to work every day, took care of us, and our relatives got sick for us. Some of them died for us during the pandemic, and we owe them, I think, more than we can repay," says Jerry Kickenson.
Crystal Parker tells me all nine topics are equally important. She says some of the legislation even ties into others.
She says the main point is making sure healthcare is affordable and accessible.
“Healthcare is a human right, so no one should be able to decide that, you know our costs, the cost is worth more than our care. You can’t live [a] quality life when you have to decide between if you’re going to heat your home, if you’re gonna have food to eat, or if you’re going to be able to get medicine to treat your documented illness," says Parker
Jerry Kickenson says it was important for him to be out here because lawmakers need to know how the people feel.
“If we want them to do the important stuff, we have to tell them what’s important to us. Otherwise, how would they know," He says.
So far, only two of sixteen bills related to healthcare have made it through their original chambers and are now in the opposite chamber.
The Home Care Workers Rights Act of 2024 and the Access to Care Act, but all of the bills still have a long way to go before possibly reaching the governor's office.
