The Insurance Industry Comes to Rhode Island - Crash Their Party!
Posted on September 25th, 2008 by Jason Rosenbaum in Take Action!
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We've been following the health insurance industry, represented by America's Health Insurance Plans, around the country, telling the real story and deriding AHIP's "listening tour" as nothing more than cheap propaganda.
First, we were there in Ohio, where Kim from SEIU asked AHIP's CEO Karen Ignagni what she thought of health care CEOs making millions while Americans get denied the health care they need.
We were there when AHIP tried to hide their events, giving out no notice to the public even as they professed they were committed to "listening" to the public.
We were there during AHIP's virtual stops at the Democratic and Republican conventions, bombarding them with over 1,700 questions you submitted - which they refused to answer.
And we were there in New Mexico, getting the industry to admit they aren't for real reform because they have to make a profit.
Tomorrow, we'll be following AHIP to Rhode Island, to unmask their propaganda. If you live near Providence, come by a join us:
Come Rally for "QUALITY, AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE FOR ALL, NOT INSURANCE PROFITS" outside of the America's Health Insurance Plan's "Listening Tour" stop.
The health insurance industry is doing a national "listening tour" around the country in an attempt to convince Americans that private, for-profit insurers want to fix the health care crisis. Health Care for American Now believes that private for-profit insurers are a major part of the problem - denying claims for legitimate care, and denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions - and that a real solution to the health care crisis has to include real serious regulation of the insurance industry to make sure that health care for people, not insurance profits, come first.
Join us as we "take the mask off" the insurance industry's effort to express concern about the health care crisis.
When:
Tomorrow, Friday, September 26th at 12:00 pmWhere:
Outside the Foundry Building
235 Promenade Street
Providence, RI 02908(map)
We'll see you there!
Why has HCAN resolved to include the insurance industry in health care? The launching of this coalition has likely provided reassurance to the insurance industry, showing that some activists have not given up on them. They are still being protested, bad-mouthed and therefore kept in the conversation, indicating that they are wanted and that there is hope that they'll support Americans' health and put their profit motives aside. HCAN is reassurance to the industry that they are not being abandoned or written off, when exclusion from health care is really all the industry has earned and deserves. Yet HCAN still is including the industry in the reform process and in conversation by directing petty protests and demands at them. Just exclude the industry. That would be the first step for giving all Americans access to health care.
The industry has proven for decades that it will not allow all Americans access health care. Yet HCAN still insists on including the industry (at a minimum through futile protest and pestering) instead of working exclusively with Congress to get a single-payer/publicly-owned health insurance system. The insurance industry deserves nothing but exclusion. Why is HCAN taking on the insurance industry? If it seriously wanted reform, it would have already given up on the industry, stopped squabbling with it and pestering it, and taken the issue up exclusively with Congress.
HCAN's push for regulation of health care insurers is another example of its commitment to include the industry in health care.
HCAN is a gift to the health care insurance industry, and an obstacle to insuring all Americans.