WATERLOO - A group of health care reformers plans to rally on a Waterloo street corner weekly until a bill is passed.

Until reform passes, Working Families Win invites the public to rally each Tuesday from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the northeast corner of Kimball and Ridgeway avenues, adjacent to Ridgeway Place in the old Schoitz Hospital building. Nine people were observed at Tuesday's gathering.

Some passing motorists honked or gave a thumbs up to the participants Tuesday to encourage their "Health care for America now!" and "Health care can't wait!" posters. Others signaled their opposition.

"Freeloaders," one man shouted out his car window.

The word struck a nerve with Pam Terrell, 61, of Waterloo.

"What's a freeloader?" she asked from the sidelines. "Five-hundred sixty dollars a month I pay for health care insurance because I have a pre-existing condition. It's gone up $100 in the last two years, and it's going to continue to go through the roof if we don't pass this."

Terrell, who retired at age 55 after 33 years with the Waterloo school system, said she's covered by the cheapest insurance option Waterloo schools offers and is uninsurable anywhere else until she qualifies for Medicare. She tried to change her life insurance policy last year but was turned down.

"I had a brain tumor," she said. "Four brain surgeries and radiation, and it's supposedly gone. But it's a pre-existing condition."

Rally organizer Chris Schwartz, with Working Families Win, said anyone who cares about health care reform needs to act now.

"We're worried if we pass reform and there's not a strong public option, this is just going to become a big subsidy for the insurance industry, and we will have lost the fight for health care reform for another generation," Schwartz said.