RICHMOND, VA. – “The Road to American Health Care,” a national bus tour aimed at mobilizing voters around comprehensive health care reform, traveled to Charlottesville, Va., today to hear from doctors and patients on the front lines of the health care crisis.

“The system isn’t breaking. It’s broken,” said Dr. Mohan Nadkarni, a medical professor at the University of Virginia Health System. “More and more people are uninsured. It’s also clear that employers are providing less insurance.”

Nadkarni helped found the Charlottesville Free Clinic in 1992, and while it initially targeted the uninsured working poor, it now sees more and more middle class patients who can’t afford the rising costs of health care, he said. “Many people, even though they’re working, can’t afford even their employer-provided insurance.”

Charlottesville Mayor David Norris led today’s event, which was part of a bus tour sponsored by SEIU, the nation’s largest union of health care workers. The tour will travel across the country on its way to the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, stopping in communities small and large to highlight real people who are struggling to keep up with rising health care costs.

The Road to American Health Care is part of SEIU’s 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.