RICHMOND, Va. – “The Road to American Health Care,” a national bus tour aimed at mobilizing voters around comprehensive health care reform within the first six months of the next administration, rolled into Richmond today to spotlight the plight of average Americans struggling to keep up with rising health care costs.

“The emergency room is my only doctor,” said Sherleen Bright, a Richmond home health care aide who has no health insurance herself. Sherleen said that because she can’t afford to see a doctor, she once waited two weeks to go to the hospital when she had pneumonia – at which point it was truly an emergency.

Sherleen is just one of the 47 million Americans who can’t afford health coverage – nearly one million of whom live in Virginia.  The Road to American Health Care is traveling across the country on its way to the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, stopping in communities small and large to highlight people like Sherleen who are finding it impossible to keep up with the rising cost of health care.

The health care crisis is already affecting the next generation, said Iman Shabazz, a board member at the Richmond Peace Education Center. “Even plans in place to help low-income or no-income people are still insufficient when it comes to meeting the needs of our children,” he said.

The Road to American Health Care is sponsored by SEIU, the nation’s largest union of health care workers, as part of a sweeping campaign to elect a new President and Congress committed to fixing health care - and then make sure those newly elected leaders immediately pass comprehensive legislation that makes quality health care affordable for everyone.