“Health care is a human right,” Joshi said. “The poor people have the same rights as the rich.”

The Mid-Michigan Coalition for National Health Care Reform hosted a rally to address the issue of national health care reform. The rally was in part to help gain awareness for the coalition’s cause and to also collect signatures to present to U.S. Sens. Carl Levin D-Mich., and Debbie Stabenow D-Mich.

Coalition member Xiqiao Chen said the group has collected about 1,800 signatures on its petition and said the work of the coalition is to educate people on the needs of a reformed health care system.

“A lot of people are more confrontational; they think health care is a privilege,” she said. “They need to understand a different side of the story where people lose their jobs every day and they don’t have health care.”

Bob Alexander, a candidate in the 2008 U.S. congressional elections for Michigan’s 8th congressional district, has been vocal about health care reform. As part of the coalition, he has advocated for reform and worked with congressional leaders and senators such as Stabenow.

“(People are) concerned about what’s going on,” he said. “We want to help them find answers.”

The coalition’s plan would be to expand Medicare to cover more than senior citizens. Alexander said the cost of the current health care system is five times what it is in some other countries, and that by using a model like Medicare, it would be substantially less expensive.

For people such as East Lansing resident Bob Stevens, the fight is not a new one. He said he has been advocating for health care reform for 40 years. As an employee of the Social Security Administration in the 1960s, Stevens said even then there were struggles with people obtaining health care.

“I saw all the people that had little or no health care,” he said. “They didn’t live very long.”

Stevens said the economy was problematic but believed a change in health care could bring the economy back around.

“It can’t help but to get worse with the health care that we have,” he said. “(A reform) would actually help the economy.”

As cars continued to pass, the group stood atop the grassy knoll on the boundary separating MSU and East Lansing. Joshi teetered on the cement barrier proudly holding her sign as people drove by.

“Right now people are hurting,” she said. “For those who aren’t covered, this offers a real hope.”