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Tell Big Insurance: We’re Sick of It
When the heads of the nation’s insurance companies come to Washington, D.C., next week to plot strategies for killing real health care reform, they’ll be greeted by thousands of union members, community, health care and religious activists with one message: Stop. We’re sick of the obscene high rates and insurance company abuses. We want health care reform now.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will lead a large union contingent to participate in a mass rally March 9 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Washington, during the meeting of the big insurance industry front group, the America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP).
Many unions and union-related groups are working together on the rally, but some are making a major effort, including AFSCME, AFGE, AFT, Communications Workers of America (CWA), Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU), Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), United Steelworkers (USW), United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), SEIU, Alliance for Retired Americans, Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), Pride At Work, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) and Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ).
Find out how you can participate and let big insurance know you’re sick of their abuses here.
The Congress and White House are working on a comprehensive health care package and we expect the insurance industry to mount an unprecedented campaign to delay or kill reform.
In a letter inviting the nation’s clergy to attend the rally, Bob Edgar, president of Common Cause and former president of the National Council of Churches, sums up what is at stake:
From the congressional level to the grassroots, leaders agree: to pass reform, advocates for working families, the middle class and the poor must speak out, and our message must be loud and clear enough to circulate widely in the media. On behalf of the millions without insurance, the underinsured, those facing run-away premiums and bankruptcy, our voice must be heard such that public attention remains focused on the urgency of reform.
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8 Comments
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I sure hope labor pushes for Medicare For All and not the crap in the House or Senate bills. Scrap the bills and start over, leave the insurance industry out of the writing process.
Yes, with a rally this large, they could have a real impact if “Medicare for All” was their only demand. No more waiting for crumbs to be thrown their way.
And someone needs to drag ‘ PROFIT’ out of the shadows. Many of us (myself included) have public or private pension funds invested in the medical-industrial complex.
My own CalPers has $67 Million in Wellpoint shares.
What’s that expression, ‘you can’t have your cake and eat it too’
What is wrong with the senate and the house? I know this I will not vote for any of the ones that are in office now.This is criminal the act that they are using. They want the big insurance companies to get their share so they can get theirs . This is not a freedom act this is piracy. Too bad they were not included in the same category as the citizens of the US according to amendment 28. God rest their souls.
I WILL BE THERE – TUESDAY 10:30 AM DUPONT CIRCLE!!!!
JIM GORDON – CWA &
PRESIDENT, CONSUMER FEDERATION OF CALIFORNIA
Where’s Stearns and his suckup crew in all this ?
And I’m here to remind the national Leadership of the AFL-CIO to remind Congress that we (the rank and file) want SINGLE PAYER HEALTH CARE FOR ALL! PUSH for HR-676 and the Sanders Senate companion Bill!
YES!!!
Two unanimous resolutions were passed in Pittsburgh for Medicare for All and imo, if single payer were an option, most workers would vote for it.
It would create jobs overnight by severing the employment/benefits contract, keeping many from leaving a job or retiring.
My wife and I will both be there at the front of the march to again meet the AHIP bag-holders. We were in D.C. the last time AHIP met at the Hilton. We rallied at the same hotel. We asked for a meeting with the head of the AHIP bunch, but she didn’t even have the self-respect to respond to our invitation. Mr. Trumka invited my wife and I to attend a conference/forum with him the next day where people from all parts of the country described how the fight for the reforms was gaining strength every day. NOW is the time for the BIG PUSH. My wife and I have been members of the CWA since 1975. We have been fighting for our worker rights and the rights of all working class people for 30+ years. We will NEVER stop. We will never give in to the greedy, self-centered corporate money bags that AHIP is and who they represent. United Health Care forced my wife and I into bankruptcy from medical bills they denied, refused, and cut back payments on. The fight with them has been since 2004, and still continues today. We will not give up. PLEASE join us, walk with us, stand by us, yell with us. We will not stop till the job is done, and done right! David & Kelly