Health Care For America Now

Campaign Escalates as People Proclaim: It’s A Crime to Deny Our Care

Washington, DC – Organizers and activists with Health Care for America Now (HCAN) – the nation’s largest health care campaign –returned to the scenes of the ‘crime’ Monday and Tuesday armed with signs, personal stories, crime scene tape, and chalk to deliver a message to big health insurance companies:  It’s a crime to deny our care.  Protesters turned out at more than 50 insurance company headquarters and offices nationwide to express their anger that health insurance companies are fighting against real reform and continuing to put Wall Street-driven profits before people’s health care needs.  Targets included UnitedHealth, WellPoint, CIGNA, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Humana, and others as local residents honed in on the companies that hold a stranglehold in their state.

In Minneapolis on Monday, six people were arrested outside the headquarters of UnitedHealth. In Philadelphia on Tuesday, five people were arrested for blocking the entrance to CIGNA.

See videos of the arrests here (PA) and here (MN).

“Health insurance companies make money by not giving people what they pay for. Their behavior should be criminal,” said Marc Stier, PA State Director of Health Care for America Now who got arrested Tuesday. “This is a moral issue. Americans are dying when insurance companies deny care.  We need Congress to stand up to the insurers and other special interests who are putting their profits before our health.”

Joan Kosloff, who also was arrested outside of CIGNA’s Philadelphia corporate headquarters on Tuesday, said that her son Eric Julian Aycox died as a result of a treatable case of meningitis because he had no health insurance.

People are engaging in civil disobedience and protesting on behalf of those who have suffered and/or lost their lives because of the business practices of CIGNA and other private health insurance companies. In Philadelphia, Stacie Ritter, whose children are being denied the medical care they need to live full lives by CIGNA, spoke at the protest. (See Stacie’s story and her visit to the CIGNA CEO’s mansion earlier in the week here: www.Sickofit.net.) Other people harmed by CIGNA’s denials of care include:

• Billy Koehler, who died of a heart attack soon after CIGNA refused to consider insuring him because he had a pre-existing medical condition.
• Dawn Smith, who is demanding answers from CIGNA about their years of denying her coverage for her rare brain tumor.

Online, supporters are creating ‘virtual crime scenes’ out of health insurance company and lobby group websites and sharing the pages via email, Facebook, and Twitter.

The “crime scene” protests are the latest actions in HCAN’s ongoing “Big Insurance: Sick of It” campaign. On Tuesday September 22nd, protesters held more than 150 anti-insurance actions across the country, and on Thursday October 1st, HCAN launched a new national TV and online advertising campaign featuring “Mansion,” a spot showing the vast difference between the home of a wealthy insurance company CEO and the average middle class family home in foreclosure due to medical debt.

Watch the “Mansion” ad online at www.HealthCareforAmericaNow.org/Mansion.

In Maine on Wednesday, people protested a huge premium increase being demanded by Anthem - a subsidiary of the insurance giant WellPoint. Anthem is suing the taxpayers because it wants to raise premiums 18% in order to guarantee a 3% profit. The state attorney general capped Anthem at 10.9%, but that was not enough for WellPoint which pays its CEO more than $9 million a year. The case is emblematic of the private insurance industry’s relentless pursuit of profits at its customers’ expense. Maine families and businesses are already struggling with high premiums and no real choices as Anthem controls more than 78% of the state’s insurance market. See today’s CNN report here.

Health Care for America Now is also running two new television ads in specific states. The spot running in Reno and Las Vegas calls out Senator John Ensign (R-NV) for taking $874,000 from the health insurance industry and then voting against giving the people of Nevada the choice of a public health insurance option – an alternative to the private health insurance companies which would lower costs by forcing them to compete. See local news coverage of the ad here.

The second television spot begins airing on broadcast and cable in Maine today and is a compilation of Mainers explaining to Senators Snowe and Collins that they do not trust the private health insurance companies and want the choice of a public health insurance option now. All ad participants have a health care story of their own. Watch the ad: HealthCareforAmericaNow.org/RealMainers.

“We need strict insurance regulation as part of reform, but regulation alone is not enough. Insurance companies find it much more lucrative to break the rules and pay fines than to play fair,” said Richard Kirsch, National Campaign Manager, Health Care for America Now. “Anthem’s lawsuit is a perfect example as to why these behemoths need a real competitor - a strong national public health insurance option available on day one. We shouldn’t have to give habitual offenders more time to see if they clean up their act. If private insurance companies are forced to compete with a public health insurance option that costs less and treats people well, they’ll have no choice but to change the way they do business.”

Health Care for America Now partners continue to generate tens of thousands of calls, faxes, and emails to members of Congress asking them to support good health care we can afford with the choice of a public health insurance option.

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