The 19 participants, wearing T-shirts with slogans that read Medicare for All and chanting patients, not profits! linked arms and sat down in the lobby of the Aetna building, prompting Aetna employees to step around them on their way into their offices, where insurance claim reviewers are busy looking for ways to deny people the lifesaving treatment that they need. A crowd of supporters picketing outside the building held signs that said "Aetna is the real death panel," and "Single payer now."And from the neo-Stalinist Democracy Now!, "As Senate Panel Debates Public Option, Groups Take Direct Action to Promote Single Payer" (via Memeorandum):
These are life and death decisions, and their profits should not be coming before patients.And here's the lineup of affiliated groups, at Healthcare for All:
But the overlying message of this is that the healthcare—health insurance industry should not be seen as a solution to our healthcare crisis. They are the cancer of the healthcare crisis. We need a single-payer system. And the band-aid, putting over the cancer, that President Obama and the Democrats are pursuing in Washington is not going to make the situation better. In fact, it’s going to make it worse, because they’re going to empower these insurance companies with hundreds of billions of dollars in annual new revenue by having working people, who can’t even afford to put food on the table in too many kinds, forced to buy private insurance that’s overpriced and a pretty lousy product. It’s amazing that we’re seeing the government forcing people to buy insurance, when the insurance industry is the cause of so much of the problems that we’re facing here.
So, people who want to get involved in this, we’re looking for people to sign up to protest, mobilizeforhealthcare.org, and come there and sign up, whether you’re a patient, whether you’re—want to get involved in this. We’ve had hundreds of people sign up already, and we want hundreds and hundreds more, because this is going to be a national campaign.
INITIATING GROUPS: Healthcare-NOW!, Prosperity Agenda, Center for the Working PoorSocialists, communists, and union goons. These folks wanted death panels for Bush/Cheney.
ENDORSING GROUPS: Progressive Democrats of America, AfterDowningStreet.org
And despite the disclaimer, they're totally in the tank for Barack Obama, demonizing everyday Americans who work hard, pay the bills, and support the system. Recall Gallup's survey out today, for example, "Gallup: 61 Percent Say Health Insurance is Personal Responsibility."
See also, the New York Times, "17 Held in Protest Outside Health Insurer’s Offices."
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