Sit-in at CIGNA insurance, 10am Wednesday, 10/28

MEDIA ADVISORY:
Sit-in at CIGNA insurance, 10am Wednesday, 10/28
Contact: Laura Flanagan, (305) 542-3570, leflanagan@hotmail.com
Lacy MacAuley, (202) 445-4692, lacy@massey-media.com
Follow us on Twitter @mob4healthcare

Citizens and health care providers
participate in Sit-in, risk arrest at the CIGNA health insurance office in Glendale
Sit-in is part of a national mobilization to end insurance abuse and win health care for all; Matt Hendrickson, MD MPH, will risk arrest for health care for all

What: Los Angeles joins in national day of sit-ins at health insurance companies to demand single-payer health care.
When: Wednesday, October 28, 2009, 10am
Where: CIGNA insurance, 400 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale, CA 91203
Who: Citizens and health care providers who are fed up with insurance company greed and are calling for real reform, Medicare for All, a single payer plan
[View a VIDEO of Los Angeles sit-in on 10/15, with introduction by Sam Pullen who was jailed for five days for health care for all. Video by Lyn Goldfarb/RamblinManFilms.]

Glendale, CA – On Wednesday, October 28, a variety of groups with the message “patients not profits,” and “insurance companies are the real death panels” will hold a sit-in with civil disobedience, street theater, music, and a rally at an insurance company in Glendale. The events will express the American people’s outrage at the crimes of the health insurance industry, including:
• Murder: A new Harvard study found that 45,000 Americans a year die because they don’t have health insurance. For the insured, denial of care and delays in approving care cause an uncounted number of deaths.
• Causing sickness and suffering for millions of people with treatable health conditions who can’t get the care they need.
• Breach of contract: Insurance companies routinely cancel the policies of many thousands of people after they became sick.
• Theft and waste of 30% of the U.S. health care dollar—money that could provide comprehensive care to all. While they were charging unaffordable premiums, denying treatment, and canceling policies, the profits of the top 10 health insurance companies went up 428% from 2000 to 2007.

"The insurance industry is the main cause of the collapse of the American health care system. It should not be part of the solution," said Matt Hendrickson, MD MPH, a doctor who will be risking arrest on Wednesday at the CIGNA health insurance office in Glendale, CA. "I'm putting myself on the line because I can no longer stand to see my patients struggle to afford the care they need while one out of every three health care dollars in our country goes to pay for administration and insurance company profits."
The sit-in is part of the Patients Not Profit campaign of the Mobilization for Health Care for All. The mobilization was launched by the organizations Prosperity Agenda, Healthcare-NOW!, and the Center for the Working Poor. The upcoming LA action has been organized by the Center for the Working Poor.

Participants in Wednesday’s act of civil disobedience think that the health care bill fails to address the real cause of our health care crisis, the insurance companies. They will point out that health insurance companies that deny people the care they need are the real death panels.

The organizers have the following statements:

We support SB 810 (California Sen. Mark Leno’s legislation for a single payer system in California) and HR 676 (U.S. Rep. John Conyers’ bill to improve Medicare and expand it to cover everyone in the U.S.)

We demand that any federal health reform include a provision to allow states to adopt single payer systems (the Kucinich amendment in the House).

We need one system of publicly funded, privately delivered health care that includes everyone.
For more information:
Mobilization for Health Care http://www.MobilizeForHealthCare.org
Healthcare-NOW!, http://www.healthcare-now.org
Prosperity Agenda, http://www.prosperityagenda.us
Center for Working Poor, http://centerfortheworkingpoor.org
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