Voices from the No Kings Rally - Corvallis, Oregon
On June 14, over 5 million people across 2,100 locations participated in the No Kings Rally, a grassroots day of action that called for an end to corporate influence and a rebuttal of the Trump Administration's actions. From healthcare to immigration to climate justice, millions came together to demand a society rooted in democracy, not tyranny. The event, which overshadowed the underwhelming Trump Birthday Military Parade in Washington DC, was one of the largest protests in American history. Among the many issues and reasons to protest, there was a clear consensus: the American healthcare system is broken, and we deserve better.
At the county courthouse in Corvallis, Oregon community members, students, professors, and healthcare workers, came together on courthouse steps to protest the proposed cuts to Medicaid and support public healthcare options. The stories shared that day painted a vivid picture of the harm caused by privatized, insurance-driven medicine and the hope being cultivated by organizations like Mid-Valley Health Care Advocates (MVHCA), Health Care for All Oregon (HCAO), and the growing movement for healthcare for all.
Clairise Iron Will, a member of the Colorado River Tribes and a surgical technology student at Linn-Benton Community College, reflected on the hypocrisies she sees in her technical training.
“I’m going to be in healthcare,” she said. “While we [perform] all this surgical stuff. I’m thinking, how are these people going to fund and pay for these expensive implants, stuff that they need to live, while we go and kill other people in other countries”
Her statements echoed the contradictions that many at the rally had realized. A society that funnels resources into the hands of a small number of individuals, a large military-industrial complex, and prioritizes corporate profits while letting people go without essential care is not a society we want to live in.
For many at the rally, the crisis is personal. Holly Bendixen, a member of Mid-Valley Health Care Advocates and Health Care for All Oregon, shared her ongoing struggles with insurance interference.
“I’m saddened and frustrated,” she said. “so many of my doctor’s tests and decisions are being deferred or rejected by the insurance company, he cannot make the recommendations that I need for my healthcare.”
This corporate insurance veto power over life-and-death decisions is at the core of what many rally-goers condemned. Debbie Palmer, a member of the Valley Neighbors for Environmental Quality and Safety (VNEQS), spoke passionately about the difference between health insurance and actual healthcare.
“I don’t want to be paying for health insurance,” she said. “I want to be paying for healthcare. I want my doctor to be deciding what my medical needs are, not my insurance company to be dictating what I can and cannot get done.”
The frustration was shared by those who interacted with the health insurance system from the other side. Dr. Bruce Thompson, who had practiced primary care medicine for decades, addressed the broader political context.
“Our country has no universal healthcare in spite of twenty other countries having universal healthcare,” he said. “And our healthcare is just getting worse since they’re proposing cuts to medicaid and medicare.”
As Dr. Thompson predicted, President Trump has now signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that 17 million people will lose coverage as a result.
Despite spending more per capita than any other country, the U.S. remains the only wealthy nation without a universal healthcare system. The result is millions of uninsured and underinsured Americans and a healthcare system where GoFundMe has become a routine part of expensive procedures.
Ken Eklund, another member of VNEX and long-time community activist, shared how this isn’t a new fight.
“It’s been an issue my entire life and I’m 68 years old now,” he said. “Where the system that we have has never really worked and now it’s getting to where it’s seriously not working. Even in the last year we’ve seen a big decline in the care that we’re getting… What’s working in other countries is actually having a national system to do it. And so we should just follow them.”
The rally also offered a glimpse of a new energy and hope stepping into the political sphere. Parker Vann, an ecological engineering student at Oregon State University and local activist, explained how the No Kings rally was a turning point.
“I am here for so many reasons.” Parker said. “I am here because people that I care about are having their rights taken away from them. I am here because as a full-time student I haven’t had a lot of opportunities to get out and get involved and this is a really nice way to spend my weekend… I am here because I am afraid for the future and I think that it is time for me to be involved in making it my own.”
The movement that the No Kings Rally represented is growing. As those in power attempt to limit their opposition’s ability to dissent, it is more important than ever to take up space. More and more Americans are rejecting a system that treats health as a privilege and embracing the call for universal, publicly funded healthcare.