Walking to Washington

Health reform advocates from Philadelphia are taking their campaign to Washington. The walking road trip kicked off Wednesday.

Health reform advocates from Philadelphia are taking their campaign to Washington. The walking road trip kicked off Wednesday. [audio:100217tewalk.mp3]

The mini March on Washington should arrive the day before President Obama’s February 25th health care summit with lawmakers.

Antoinette Kraus is one of the walkers.

Kraus: We wanna make sure that they remember that while they’re debating and trying to find a solution that people are suffering everyday. Sixty-eight people die every day in Pennsylvania without health insurance, so we need to get to a solution that offers people quality, affordable health care.

Kraus’s mother has epilepsy. So the 28-year-old is hoping for a reform plan that prevents insurance companies from rejecting people who already have health problems.

Just seven people will walk the entire 140 miles to Washington, but they’ll rally supporters at more than 10 stops along the route. The walkers are also backed by a pit crew from the Pennsylvania chapter of Health Care for America Now.

Iwanka Kultschyckyj will join the hike and expects the march to draw attention.

Kultschyckyj: They will say these people really care. They came all the way from Philadelphia to bust the problem in Washington and to break that bubble and to say: ‘Look, there are definitely people who care, constituents are speaking and they are walking.

Kultschyckyj says she’d like to see a hybrid health system that includes both private and plans as long as every American has insurance coverage.