To the editor:

This pandemic has highlighted the multitude of flaws in the U.S. health care system. COVID has caused our rural hospitals that were already struggling pre-COVID to go further into the red. Now more than ever, we need to elect people who will defend the Affordable Care Act and fund our hospitals. As a health care worker, I have seen the direct impact COVID has had on our North Country hospitals. Health care workers have faced layoffs, furloughs and large reductions of both staff and hours. These cuts have a direct effect on the quality of patient care. We face a very uncertain future if we don’t receive the funding that we so desperately need.

Kimberly Davis and Tedra Cobb will fight to maintain, enhance and fund the ACA and our hospitals. These two women have given their lives to public service. The health care workers of 1199 SEIU have wholeheartedly endorsed Kimberly Davis for state Senate and Tedra Cobb for US Congress. They will stand with us through this pandemic and beyond. We need quality health care in the North Country. Our local hospitals will not survive, or they will close without sufficient funding. That is why 1199 SEIU health care workers are voting for Kimberly Davis and Tedra Cobb. They stand with health care workers, and we stand with them.

Daniel Sturrock

Plattsburgh