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Medicare for All

On September 29th, the Mobilization for Health Care for All launched a national campaign of "Patients Not Profit" sit-ins at insurance company offices to demand an end to a system that profits by denying people care. We want the real "public option": Medicare for All, a single payer plan that cuts out the profit and puts patients first.

In recent weeks, over 150 everyday Americans challenged the corporate control of the health care system and were arrested in nearly 30 cities across the country, thousands supported them, and the nation heard our message that we must get profit out of our health care system.

As health insurance reform churns through the Congress, the fight for health care for all continues. To succeed, we need to keep targeting the insurance companies, but we also need to take our message to those who are making the decisions about our health - the US Congress. They need to know that we are serious when we say cut out the profit and put patients first with Medicare for All.

We continue to make our demands to support Medicare for All and if the Congress can’t enact universal health care, they should step aside and let states do it.

We know that the implementation of Medicare for All is not seriously considered in Congress because of the money and power of the insurance and pharmaceutical companies, but we demand a vote on this historic legislation. Further, if the US Congress cannot enact universal health care, states that pass single-payer plans should be given the resources to implement them. With these demands, we can make historic gains towards the right to health care for all people.

We know that Insurance companies are the real death panels in America. They make billions in profit and millions for their CEOs while millions of Americans have no health insurance and over 45,000 die every year because they can't get the care they need. That's more than 120 people every day. These insurance companies deny care to their members and the American people for profit. We need to make sure Congress listens to the people to implement real reform.

America deserves better, and that's why we voted for change. But the insurance companies are spending millions to confuse and scare the public to keep us from ending their grip on our health and our money. When the civil rights movement faced serious challenges in the struggle to end segregation, nonviolent civil disobedience moved the nation and made reform possible. Just like the lunch counter sit-ins did for the civil rights movement, we have to make it impossible for the media and our country to ignore how outrageous the status quo of private insurance is for the American people.

It only takes a small group of people to do a sit-in in your community, but our actions can inspire every American who has been abused by the insurance companies and believes it's time for real reform to fight for it. This campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience will continue until the insurance companies no longer stand between the American people and the health care that is our right.

Already, doctors, nurses, patients, and people just like you are signing up to be one of the 1000 ordinary but courageous people who will launch this nonviolent battle to end private insurance abuse and win health care for all. Join us! We can't wait any longer - every day more people die because of the insurance company death panels. Let's make sure our voices our heard.

Sign up to sit in and join the battle today!

The Louisville Seven have been occupying the Humana office for 24 hours now, and will not leave until their demands are met! Our support goes with them all!

Friday, October 30, 2009

Demonstrators Sit In At Humana

By Gabe Bullard | WFPL News

A group of single-payer healthcare advocates is camped out in the lobby of the Humana building in Louisville.

More than 20 protesters, including Carla Wallace, entered the building at mid-morning.

“We’ll stay here. I guess we’ll just stay overnight. I think this is a life and death issue,” she says. “We want Humana and all the healthcare providers in this country to stop cutting people off who have pre-existing conditions, to stop denying care to the sickest people among us, and to make health care affordable and available for everyone.”

Humana Spokesperson Jim Turner says the group is welcome to stay in the lobby as long as they are peaceful.

“The folks who come out and demonstrate like this here in Louisville are always very peaceful and respectful and we’ve seen that even in the lobby,” he says.

Turner says Humana also wants to see changes made to the nation’s health care system, but did not elaborate.

Similar protests have led to more than 70 arrests nationwide over the past several months.