SHIFT Hosts Health Care Discussion with Utah Representative

by Elaine Ball

Last semester SHIFT (Secular Humanism, Inquiry and Freethought) held an informative and engaging health care event. At this event we welcomed Representative Brian King, of the Utah House of Representatives District 28, to address and lead our group in an interactive discussion, following which we showed the documentary Sicko, by Michael Moore's homepage. We advertised the event to our group and posted flyers to invite the campus community at large, and were pleased to have approximately 20 in attendance for the event.

Making this event possible was SHIFT marketing director Stephanie Horlacher, who attended a political event on campus at which she heard some of Utah's local Representatives speak to students. Impressed by the background and education of Representative Brian King, she approached him following the event and asked if he would be willing to lead our group in a pertinent and timely discussion about the current state of health care in Utah and our nation.

In my capacity as then-president of SHIFT, I contacted Representative King on Stephanie's recommendation, and he enthusiastically agreed to come and speak with our group! Before this event, many of us felt that we were ill-informed about the current health care debate and the issues facing ourselves and many other Americans regarding this important issue. Representative King brought to the discussion years of work as an attorney at law representing plaintiffs who have been unfairly denied coverage by health insurance companies. Following this discussion and poignant film, we have been able to discuss the many discrepancies within the American health care system with a more informed and educated perspective.

Elaine Ball is the interfaith liaison and co-founder of SHIFT. She graduates in May 2010 with a BA in French and is very excited to be the first in her immediate family to earn a bachelor's degree. She writes about community organizing, activism, and more on her blog, elaineball.blogspot.com.