SEARCH
Health Care Reform Action: Rallies, a ‘Die-In’ and a Visit from the VP
 |
|
In Hartford, Conn., union and health care activists marched on the headquarters of health insurance giant Aetna. In Minnetonka, Minn., the target was the posh headquarters of UnitedHealthcare. And in Fargo, N.D., demonstrators took a list of health care reform demands to the offices of Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota.
In Philadelphia, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker led a rally and march of several hundred to CIGNA’s headquarters.
Meanwhile, Vice President Joe Biden today met with Alliance for Retired Americans seniors to describe how the administration’s health care plan would benefit them.
Those rallies and marches and dozens of others in cities around the country were part of a National Day of Action for health care reform and against the private health insurance companies’ multimillion-dollar campaign to block comprehensive reform that includes a quality and affordable public health insurance option.
The actions—sponsored by Health Care for America Now! (HCAN!), the AFL-CIO, MoveOn and other groups—targeted the national and regional office of the biggest private health insurance companies that are spending some $1.4.million a day to block health care reform.
Workday Minnesota’s Barb Kurcera reports:
Clearly, the more than 150 protesters who converged at UnitedHealth’s posh Minnetonka corporate offices had enough of insurance company efforts to block congressional action on health care. They joined thousands around the country in coordinated demonstrations under the theme, “Big Insurance: Sick of It.”
The demonstrators had hoped to present a list of demands to United CEO Stephen Helmsley. That list included asking the insurance giant to cease using premium dollars to fight health care reform, stop standing between a doctor and patient in deciding health care needs, end the practice of denying coverage for pre-existing conditions and stop rewarding employees for denying claims. But, writes Kucera:
Demonstrators were met by locked doors and a staff member who accepted the document. So they staged a “die-in” on the plaza in front of the building.
Click here for Kucera’s full story.
Elsewhere, Mark Fromke, president of the Western Area Labor Council, told the North Dakota news site InForum that Blue Cross Blue Shield controls 90 percent of the state’s health insurance and that’s why a public health insurance option is crucial.
We’ve got to have that competition.
The Fargo activists also had a list of health care demands, but they were met with better manners. Instead of locked doors, a company representative invited them into a conference room where they could present the list. No answers or agreement to stop abusive practices, but an unusual touch of corporate civility.
In Hartford, more than 200 gathered in front of Aetna headquarters waving banners and carrying signs saying “Americans Need the Public Option Now” and “Aetna’s Denials Make Us Sick,” according to the Hartford Courant.
Earlier today, Biden took part in the health care debate when he visited a retirement community in Silver Spring, Md., and spoke to residents, including many members of the Alliance for Retired Americans.
Alliance Executive Director Edward Coyle says he hopes Biden’s straight-forward talk helps alleviate
the concerns of retirees, who have been the victim of an insurance industry-backed campaign of lies and scare tactics. We must help seniors separate fact from fiction, so they see how health reform will help them more easily see a doctor, get a prescription filled and obtain essential preventive screenings for cancer and other diseases.
Alliance member Phil Feaster, who attended the meeting with Biden, is one of 3.4 million seniors who fall into the Medicare “donut hole,” in which they must pay both their monthly Medicare premiums and full price for their prescriptions. He pays $700 month for eight daily medicines. Feaster says he is “honored” to join Biden in the drive for health care reform.
But this is not just about me. It is about the millions of retirees who need help. Times are tough for seniors, but this year we have a chance to make things better.
 |
Become a Fan on Facebook |  |
Follow Us on Twitter |  |
Subscribe to YouTube |  |
Subscribe to Blog RSS | ||||
3 Comments
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
A “public option”? What in God’s name does it look like? It is only a concept, and a flawed one at that. We’re being asked to sign a blank check made payable to “Public Option”. The majority of workers want single payer. That should be our demand. Nothing less! Congress cannot be trusted. They must be forced to do what is right, and so should the AFL-CIO!
Over the years, revisionists were allowed to steer the AFL-CIO to the right, and we’ve been on the run ever since. Once, 37% of America’s workers were organized. Today we’re down to 12% (7% in the private sector).
Every retreat by labor has been accompanied by a reduction in union density.
Red-baiting and cold-warrior antics first took their toll. Next, Reagan was allowed to bust the air traffic controllers. By then only 22% of us were organized. When Clinton got away with shoving NAFTA down our throats we had fallen to 16%. By the time Bush assumed office, only 12% of us were in unions. Bush got away with tossing union workers out of airports.
Labor has not drawn a line in the sand in over 50 years. The results speak for themselves. We’re down to 12%.
Here are $64,000 questions: What will labor do when Congress passes crap “health care reform”? What will labor do when Congress passes a watered-down Employee Free Choice Act? If history repeats itself, the honchos will declare victory while the rest of us accept defeat.
My fervent hope is that Rich Trumka and the new AFL-CIO leadership will mobilize the ranks! If that does not happen, it will be same old, same old in a new dress. And we’ll shrink some more. In the final analysis only people like us will suffer. The rich won’t. They never have and they never will.
Isn’t it time for us to mobilize around issues that are in our own best interests? When we do, we’ll discover that our struggle will also benefit our families, friends and neighbors. It’s our time. But we’ll have to get off our couches and make it happen!
lets just hope that when this reform passes we don’t end up with this http://www.typobounty.com/Funny/Health_Care_Reform3.htm
If you are interested in staging a public option rally in DC in about a month or so, let me know