Meet Daniel Hilsinger, our newest unsung hero of healthcare reform! This project of HEAL California, highlights the hard work and dedication of individuals who are working – often in the background – to win Medicare-for-All in California and the nation.
Daniel Hilsinger‘s healthcare awakening began shortly after he was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.
The 31-year-old Orinda, California resident was already an activist. A Bernie Sanders supporter, he was a national delegate for the Sanders primary campaign. But a tumor found in his tibia, later identified as Osteosarcoma, abruptly ended any plans of traveling to Philadelphia for the national convention. His life became a succession of surgery, doctor appointments and chemotherapy. It also led him to a better understanding of healthcare in the United States.
“That experience shifted my perspective about how things worked, made me more viscerally think about healthcare,” Hilsinger said. “I met a lot of people while I was doing chemotherapy. They were struggling, and really sick. They were struggling to make it through chemotherapy, and then they were arguing with their different insurance companies. They were battling not only to survive the treatment but just to be able to pay their bills.”
Now he’s the lead organizer for the March for Our Health, (click here for more information at their website and Facebook Page) which supports Medicare for All, as well as other social justice rights, set for May 12, 2018, in Oakland, California.
While still in a wheelchair recovering from his surgery and chemotherapy, Hilsinger began his new path as the Campaign for Healthy California, a progressive coalition, which includes the California Nurses Association, got off the ground in early 2017. The Healthy California Campaign supports the single payer bill SB 562 (California Medicare for all). He joined the Contra Costa County chapter of Healthcare For All, and eventually organized a protest and canvass against a legislator who opposed the bill.
“I wanted to be involved any way I could be,” Hilsinger said, noting that he is now cancer free, though still doing rehab and needs a checkup every three months. “There needs to be a mass movement, whether in California or nationally, working together in the same way movements won the women’s right to vote and civil rights.”
The March for Our Health organizers are aligning with community groups that wouldn’t ordinarily be included in a single payer march but are natural allies, said Hilsinger. Environmental groups, clean water groups, East Bay social justice groups are all about creating a healthier life and need to be part of the movement, he added.
The group’s mission statement explains the larger vision: “We all deserve a healthy life. That means a right to healthcare, education, housing, clean air, clean water, healthy food, and the right to live a life free of discrimination, oppression exploitation and violence.”
Hilsinger said that organizers envision similar events in the future in other urban areas because they believe it will take a mass movement to win single payer healthcare for all.
“I think single payer is such a big shift especially against an industry that is profiting off the sick and suffering,” he said. “People are stuck in this idea that this is just the way things are and they can’t see what is possible. This can be done.”
Click here for the March for Our Health website, Facebook page and list of partners and endorsements.
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