NYC sit-in against Aetna
By
NEW YORK--A day of action for universal, single-payer health care on September 29 began with health care activists sitting in at the Manhattan offices of the insurance giant Aetna.
Activists linked arms in front of Aetna offices at 10 a.m., stopping normal traffic flow into the building. The demand: health care for all! They moved into the lobby, refusing to leave until the insurance company approved all life-saving treatments for people on their files.
Aetna representatives refused to speak with protesters and called the police. The police arrested 17 activists and held them for 24 hours.
This civil disobedience action was led by the Private Health Insurance Must Go (PHIMG) coalition, which aims to bring awareness of the fact that 45,000 people die each year because they lack health insurance. PHIMG is for the abolition of the private health insurance industry and is for the adoption of HR 676, the health care bill for expanded and improved Medicare for all introduced by Rep John Conyers (D-Mich.).
Some 200 people gathered in the afternoon to express their solidarity with those arrested in the morning, and to demand Medicare for all. People gathered in front of the headquarters of Bristol Myers Squibb, a pharmaceutical company that charges outrageous prices for the medications they manufacture, making many life-saving medications unaffordable to most working people.
The crowd then marched through midtown Manhattan, chanting, "Health care for people, not for profits!" and "What do we want? Single-payer! When do we want it? now!"
These protests were a welcome breath of fresh air in the middle of a national health care debate that has been dominated by right-wing lies and misinformation.
The media and politicians in Washington have largely ignored the human tragedy of a health care system that leaves out millions of people, and prioritizes profit over delivering health care. Close to 50 million people go uninsured in this country, and the current health care proposals do little or nothing to address this crisis.
We need real health care reform. We need reform that actually solves the health care crisis instead of lining the pockets of the private health insurance industry and the pharmaceutical industry.
Healthcare Now! is sponsoring a national mobilization of non-violent, civil disobedience for single-payer and Medicare for all. Visit the Healthcare Now! Web site for more information.
