Monique WilburnI live in North Providence, RI and am a member of SEIU Local 615. After 18 years of dedicated service, my employer, Lincoln Park, violated the union contract when they laid me off. I was initially left without health coverage.

As a diabetic, I have to rely on insulin to stay healthy and it was impossible for me to afford the out of pocket costs for a month’s supply, especially since I am unemployed. Without the medication I can’t live, much less be actively employed.

I couldn’t even enroll in Rhode Island’s comprehensive state Medicaid program, RIte Care, because I don’t have any children and therefore didn’t meet the eligibility requirements. I was left with no options.

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Eileen and Francis SpillaneI operate a small contracting business, Spillane General Contractors, in my hometown. My business is successful, but with the skyrocketing cost of health care insurance I, like far too many small businesses in the state, cannot afford to provide coverage to my 5 employees. There is no way I can afford health coverage for my employees. If I provided them with health care I would go out of business.

I support the Fair Share Health Care Act under consideration in Rhode Island because large companies like Wal-Mart are shifting the cost of their employees’ health care onto taxpayers. They should be contributing a reasonable amount toward their employees’ health care.  Some of the small business suppliers I work with are subsidizing the health care cost of their competitors. I believe the Fair Share Health Care Act begins to level the playing field and is an important step in addressing our state’s health care crisis.

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Caroline BrownCaroline and her husband are successful self-employed freelance writers who moved to RI four years ago because of the high quality of life here. However, because they are self-employed they can't get reasonably priced quality health insurance.

They are dropping the costly high-deductible coverage that was the only kind they could afford because "it isn't really worth anything. A doctor I visited said that I should get a mammogram because I’m approaching my 40^th birthday. But my insurance doesn’t cover the cost of a preventive mammogram. This was the last straw. We’ve decided to drop the insurance because it’s obviously a waste of money. I’m not sure what we’ll do to cover our health care expenses.

"That’s why I’m a Health Care Voter with Rhode Island for Health Care. Because I never thought that I’d be almost 40 years old and not insured."