Category: Public Policy

  Michael Ladson, Joan Kosloff, Dennis Short, Marc Stier, Ray Torres Today we were arrested for blocking the doors to the offices of the CIGNA Insurance Companies world headquarters in Philadelphia. Taking this action was not easy for us. Most of us have been political activists for many years but some of us have never been arrested before and for others of us, it has been a very long time since we felt so strongly about an issue that we were moved to take part in civil disobedience. A decent respect for the law and our fellow citizens leads me to explain why we are taking this action today. All of us believe that the law should be broken only when doing so is a means to preventing a great evil. We are acting on that principle. The laws that regulate the health insurance industry need to be reformed in… Continue reading

Today, Tuesday, October 6, at 11:30 am at 1601 Chestnut Street in Philadelphia to we are going back to CIGNA’s world head quarters in Philadelphia to protest business practices that deny people insurance coverage and health care and their political efforts to block health care reform. A few of us are going to risk arrest by blocking the doors to CIGNA’s lobby. We need as many of you as possible to join us and show support for this action. Please RSVP here. We are not eager to engage in civil disobedience. We have been organizing for months, built a huge campaign and have had a clear impact on our Senators and Representatives. But what we have seen in the last few months from the opponents of health care reform, who are partly financed by health insurance companies, is a campaign of deceit, lies and distortions. Continue reading

In rallies, media events, press conferences, blogs and op-ed pieces, we are making it clear to the American people that if the insurance companies win, we all lose. That effort is bearing fruit. Despite the disappointing action of the Senate Finance Committee, pressure for the public health insurance option is building. Polls show strong support for the public option. A majority of the Senate is now clearly in favor. And Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who is working to figure out how to move a public option through the complicated Senate procedures has said that the final health bill will have a public option. See http://www.lvrj.com/news/breaking_news/Reid-Final-health-bill-will-have-… But to make that happen we need to keep the pressure on. So I’m asking you to come out on Tuesday, October 6, at 11:30 am at 1601 Chestnut Street in Philadelphia to join us as we declare CIGNA’s world head quarters a crime… Continue reading

Pennsylvania Health Care for America Now Continues To Protest Cigna Cigna Victim Stacie Ritter to Seek Help from CEO H. Edward Hanway at his mansion in Media, PA  Action Corresponds with New Television Ad Contrasting Insurance CEO’s Fancy Home with Average Foreclosed Home Due To Medical Bankruptcy **Watch the new ad and Stacie Ritter talking about her situation and plan for today here: HealthCareforAmericaNow.org/Mansion** Continue reading

On Tuesday September 22, HCAN, in over a hundred events around the country, thousands of people took time off to say Big Insurance: Sick of It. They say that they are angry insurance companies for denying people care and coverage, for paying their employees more to deny care, and for using our premiums to lobby Congress in opposition to health care reform and a public health insurance option. In Pennsylvania, we had well attended events in Philadelphia, Williamsport, Erie, and Pittsburgh. Created with flickr slideshow. Over 750 people from Philadelphia and its suburbs rallied, chanted and marched in support of health care reform. They came together to demand that CIGNA and other health insurance companies stop denying care and coverage to Americans and end their opposition to real reform that includes a public health insurance option. Continue reading

Originally published in the Philadelphia Daily News, August 5, 2009 http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/52498012.html IN THE SEARCH for how to pay for health care reform, pundits and some senators keep talking about taxing employer-based health care benefits despite the fact such a tax would fall not on the wealthy – whose incomes shot up while their taxes were being sliced by the Bush administration – but on the middle class. Taxing employer-based health care makes sense in theory – when things are cheaper we buy more of them. If everything but medical care is taxed, perhaps we do buy more of it than we need. But I’m a community organizer as well as an academic, and I like to make the case for abstract ideas by telling personal stories. It struck me that among the hundreds of stories I’ve collected this year about people and their health care, I’ve heard none that support… Continue reading

I know you are all have been working hard for health care reform. But I need you to do a bit more. Because the debate about health care in Washington has come down to this: If the insurance companies win, we lose.   HCAN and our partners are doing rallies all over the country to make the fundamental choice crystal clear.  You can help by coming out to fight for quality affordable health care at one of our rallies across the state: Big Insurance: Sick of It  Rallies for Health Insurance Reform Tuesday, September 22 Click more for locations and to RSVP for events in Pittsburgh, Williamsport, Wilkes-Barre, Erie, and Philadelphia Continue reading

Here is your opportunity. All over the country, on Tuesday, September 22, Health Care For American Now, MoveOn, the AFL-CIO, SEIU and other groups are holding Big Insurance: Sick of It rallies. One of three national flagship events is in Philadelphia at 4:45 PM Dilworth Plaza, at the northwest corner of City Hall. Our target is Cigna insurance, whose world headquarters is in Philadelphia Wendell Potter, the former Cigna executive who has been speaking out about the awful practice of insurances companies will speak. So will Arlene Holt Baker, the Executive Vice President of the AFL-CIO. The eyes of the country will be on us, so we need a HUGE TURNOUT for this event. So please, RSVP for the event here, right now. And please invite your friends to this event today. Continue reading

The “Get It Done” health care rally at the Lions Park in Bristol Borough, PA, on Saturday, September 5th, 2009, drew a crowd of 300 people. The rally was one of hundreds taking across the country as part of the Health Care for America Now! campaign. The “Part 1” video features speeches given by several Bucks residents; Parts 2 and 3 have Congressman Patrick Murphy’s passionate speech in defense of health care reform.   Continue reading