Nurses, Doctors, Patients To Protest Health Insurance Lobbyists In San Diego - June 4th

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 03 Jun 2009 - 5:00 PDT

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As America's drive for healthcare reforms heats up, the lobbying group for health insurers will meet this week in San Diego-and will be greeted by an impassioned demonstration organized by nurses, doctors, and patients supporting single-payer healthcare reforms.

WHAT: Nurses, Doctors Protest Health Insurance Industry
WHEN: Thursday, June 4th, 8:30 a.m.
(media availability at 8:00 and 10:15 a.m.)
WHERE: San Diego Convention Center, 5th @ Harbor, near grass meridian

The healthcare advocates will give the lobbyists an $11 billion dollar check, representing their annual profits, as a symbolic final payout to encourage the health insurers to leave the industry and be replaced with the kind of universal, nonprofit coverage common to other democracies.

This system, the "single-payer" system, would be like an expanded and improved Medicare for All, and is the only way to ensure universal coverage with choice of physician and comprehensive benefits. AHIP and its Washington lobbyists have worked to keep these reforms "off the table" and out of the national debates. If AHIP and its allies are successful, it will allow the health insurers to continue their record of delaying treatment, denying care, and diverting billions of dollars from vital patient care needs to overhead, waste, and insurance industry profits.

The last AHIP annual convention, in June of 2008, attracted nearly 5,000 protestors.

Geri Jenkins, RN, a transplant nurse at UC San Diego and co-President of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee said, "We march for those who can't, for those who have been denied care by the insurance companies, or bankrupted by their heartless practices. The American people are ready for guaranteed healthcare through an improved 'Medicare for All,' and it is time to pass Rep. John Conyers' HR 676 and Sen. Sanders' S 703."

Source
California Nurses Association