U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood’s guest for Tuesday night’s State of the Union address will be Karen Battaglia, the trauma coordinator for emergency services at Northwestern Medicine McHenry.
For more than 20 years, Battaglia has worked to improve the health and lives of thousands of people in her community as a nurse. Along with her work to save lives, she has worked to improve community safety through coordinating community programs such as SAFE Kids, poison prevention workshops and bicycle helmet fittings for children. Additionally, Battaglia is a member of Underwood’s nursing advisory council. 2020 is the World Health Organization’s “Year of the Nurse and Midwife.”
“I am so honored to have Karen join me as my guest to the State of the Union address,” Underwood said. “Karen is a dedicated nurse who has spent her career working to improve the lives and health of northern Illinoisans. Her care and the care of her patients is under threat every day under this administration. Karen’s story is exactly why I’m working every day to lower health care costs for Illinoisans and safeguard protections for people with preexisting conditions.”
Battaglia lives with a preexisting condition, asthma. Battaglia and several members of her family are among the 5,417,600 Illinoisans – like Underwood – who live with a preexisting condition and are at risk of losing their health care coverage if the Trump Administration succeeds in their relentless efforts to repeal the ACA.
Battaglia has previously shared her story with Underwood discussing the challenges she faced to access care with a preexisting before the ACA. Under her employer-sponsored health care plan, she faced high out-of-pocket costs for asthma medications and maternity care. Battaglia emphasizes repealing the ACA would have devastating effects for her, her sons and grandson, who also have asthma.
Source: The Daily Chronicle
Be First to Comment