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Mill worker puts face on political issues
By Danielle Braff
Northwest Indiana Post-Tribune
September 23, 2007
Most celebrities work their entire lives to reach the degree of fame that Steve Skvara managed to obtain in less than five minutes on Aug. 7.
That's the day he made an impassioned plea on national TV, where he questioned presidential candidates on America's health care system.
But his story starts decades earlier when a temporary job led to a career.
Life after steel
After graduating from Griffith High School, Skvara took a job doing mechanical maintenance for the former Youngstown Steel. He wanted to become an artist, but his father wanted him to be a teacher. The steel job was meant to be a stepping stone before moving on to college. Skvara started in 1965 at the East Chicago mill and never left.
Thirty-five years later, he retired from the LTV steel mill on disability, having witnessed the mill go through seven ownership changes. In the meantime, he married and had four children.
Skvara likes to talk. A lot. His diatribes move from one topic to another seamlessly and he can go from laughing to crying in about 10 seconds. He loves his wife and never regretted proposing to her after dating for one month. He brags about his four children and tears up when he speaks about how proud he is of their marriages, their careers.
He's the president of the Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees and has been fighting the health care system for the past five years, ever since the LTV steel mill declared bankruptcy, leaving its retirees without health care. In addition to losing his health care, he lost a third of his pension. Skvara's wife, Sandy, is a substitute teacher and doesn't receive health insurance. While Skvara qualifies for health benefits under Medicare, his wife is too young.
The accident
He and his wife have suffered through countless surgeries and health problems after a 1997 car accident. They were driven off the road by a driver who ran off before being questioned by police. Skvara, his wife and his two youngest children were in Florida for a school choir trip when they got into the crash. Skvara suffered a shattered knee, a ruptured Achilles' tendon, a fractured hip, seven broken ribs and a disk blown in his back. His wife broke her hip, pelvis, ankle and an arm. His daughter chipped her tooth and had a broken leg, and his son broke his back.
Since the other driver wasn't apprehended, the Skvaras never got a settlement following the accident. A local fund-raiser brought in $1,000 for the Skvara family.
It was a long and difficult recovery for the family, who managed to survive because their health insurance was still working, as the accident happened five years before Skvara's company would declare bankruptcy. But the accident left many scars, and Skvara eventually gave up trying to work.
Now, the family has too much money to qualify for Medicaid but too little to be able to pay for private health insurance. Skvara said he might be able to manage the $400 per month insurance coverage, but he can't pay for the $5,000 deductibles that come along with the plan. He even looked into the health insurance programs that advertise low prices on television commercials. Skvara said he would love to pay $89 per month for his health insurance, but those low costs come with deductibles reaching $20,000.
For that reason, his wife hadn't been to the doctor in seven years. Seven years without a mammogram or a heart exam or a fitness test for a woman in her 50s is a long time, said Skvara, whose first health care break came minutes after he gave his speech to the Democratic candidates.
Offer of help
An Illinois woman watching the broadcast immediately related to his situation, having gone through chronic health problems for the past four years. She turned to her boyfriend, who is a doctor with a cardiology group based in Northwest Indiana, and said, "You can save that woman."
Colette Morley asked her boyfriend, who requested that the name of his office not be revealed, to rally the doctors in his practice to help Skvara's wife get her first physical in seven years. "It seemed rather unfair, and she was going without any type of health care, and Steve's passion for his wife, his love for her really came through in that moment. The least we could do was to help," Morley said.
Skvara received phone calls from people all over the country hoping to make his life a little easier by giving him some money. He turned down the monetary offers, telling them to give to people in their community. But he accepted the help of Srin Reddy, Morley's boyfriend.
Skvara smiled for the first time all morning when he spoke about the full physical that confirmed that his wife was healthy. But then he returned to business and remembered that while his wife received free physical care there were millions of others still in need.
"It's not a story about a retiree and his wife," Skvara said. "It's a story of 50 million people who are in the United States living without health care."
History of speaking up
This isn't the first time Skvara has stood before politicians and the public to fight for his causes. When his children were in school, he was a member of the Union Township School Board and later a member of the group Keeping Educational Excellence in Perspective. Now he's the president of the S.O.A.R.
But this was the first time Skvara got recognition outside of local media outlets, and now, during the final months before voters go to the polls for the primaries, he's becoming an unlikely political player. Following the Democratic forum, he received a phone call from John Edwards. The presidential candidate thanked Skvara for his question and told him to call him any time on his cell phone.
Skvara didn't return the call because at the time he wanted to be neutral. But in the weeks following the call, Skvara became a convert, publicly endorsing Edwards and offering to help with his campaign.
Then, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's office called. They wanted Skvara to introduce the governor before a state fair. He obliged happily. Next, he stood next to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to repeat his thoughts on the health care system.
In the spotlight
He continues to field calls from politicians and reporters because he's able to give the human side to the health care issues, which many politicians are unable to express, said Jennifer Hora, assistant professor of political science at Valparaiso University.
"Politicians understand all the intricacies but they can't speak very humanistically about it," Hora said. "They don't see the human side. This lends them credibility. It's not just that I can rattle off the number of people without insurance, but here's a face that I can identify with."
Right now, Skvara wants big changes and he's hoping an Edwards presidency would bring the country a step closer to having a national health care system.
"This is not the America that I remember, this isn't the America I grew up with," Skvara said, the tears starting again. "We have the finest doctors, the best nurses, but the delivery stinks. There's something radically wrong."
He's doing the best he can to convince the American public of his views and, just like the politicians, Skvara is performing in the media circus.
He enjoyed riding in the limousines to and from the airport when he went on Oprah's talk show, which is expected to air Thursday.
And he was pleased he was finally able to tell Oprah's producers what he really thought of her show. While he appreciated Oprah's frequent focus on health and medical care, he questioned her intentions and her thought process when she highlighted screenings and medical procedures she believed were important -- even when the bulk of her audience would never be able to afford her recommended care.
Skvara loved meeting his hero, Michael Moore, and while Skvara doesn't think he'll call him, he enjoys having Moore's cell phone number implanted in his phone.
Skvara still walks on crutches and wears his not-so-stylish big white socks. But he's getting into the game. On a recent day when he had multiple on-air interviews to do, he called his wife and asked her to quickly bring him another shirt.
He's known as the shining star around the steelworkers union, and others are happy to lend their support. Michael Mitchell, a member of the union, helped field Skvara's phone calls when they got too overwhelming for the new celebrity.
"I lost track of how many interviews came in," Mitchell said. "But I think it's about time that health care is getting noticed. There are a lot of people who don't have health care, so at least it's in the forefront now."
Scrutiny steps up
But along with health care, Skvara himself is also in the forefront, and his efforts aren't without criticism. Blogs, newspaper columns and local commentary have criticized Skvara for his lack of financial planning, his misuse of his salary and his frequent complaints about the current president.
Skvara warned his four children not to look for him on the Internet, where a Google search of his name pops up about 20,000 entries -- at least one of which christens him "the Cindy Sheehan of healthcare." One of his children was curious, but was distressed to see the negative coverage.
Skvara defended himself, saying he drives a very old car, he raised and financially supported four children, and he is simply fighting for what he believes is correct. He's also adopted the mantra followed by celebrities throughout the centuries:
"I don't pay attention to those things, because if you do, they will drive you crazy," he said.
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Danielle Braff