AMERICANS
FORCED TO FORM UNDERGROUND MOVEMENT TO GET HEALTH INSURANCE
(press
release date
July 15) |
REPLY TO
PID ORDER
TO CEASE |
| LETTER
TO PID COMMISSIONER JOEL ARIO |
| CORRESPONDENCE
WITH PID 2005-2009 |
PROPOSED
CO-OP
HEALTH PLAN REGULATIONS |
| PHILAHEALTHIA
PLEDGE CAMPAIGN |
ITHACA
HEALTH
ALLIANCE |
A CRIME
NOT A CRISIS:
WHY PENNSYLVANIA HEALTH INSURANCE
COSTS SO MUCH.
SIX WAYS
TO FIX IT |
97 YEARS
WITHOUT CURE:
THE FAILURE OF LEGISLATIVE CAMPAIGNS FOR UNIVERSAL COVERAGE |
CO-OP CONTRIBUTION
TO UNIVERSAL COVERAGE CAMPAIGN |
| Martin Luther King: "There is nothing wrong with a
traffic law which says you have to stop for a red
light. But when a fire is raging, the fire truck
goes right through the red light... Or, when a person is bleeding to
death, the ambulance goes through those red lights at top speed...
---Disinherited people all over the world are bleeding to death from
deep social and economic wounds. ---They need brigades of
ambulance drivers who will have to ignore the red lights of the present
system until the emergency is solved... ---Massive civil disobedience is a
strategy for social change which is at least as forceful as an
ambulance with its sirens on full." |
| "Power yields nothing without
demand" --Frederick Douglass |
|
HEALTHY REBELLION
We'll be meeting July 1
at Studio
34, 4522 Baltimore Ave, at 7:30pm for Philadelphia's first
Health Independence Party.
Three years ago we started PhilaHealthia, our grassroots
health co-op based on the successful Ithaca Health Alliance, approved
in New York state. Members of the Ithaca Health Alliance pay
$100 per YEAR to be covered for 12 categories of common emergency,
anywhere in the world. They own their own free
clinic. The Ithaca Health Alliance is endorsed by New York
State legislators and Ithaca's mayor, by its Chamber of Commerce,
Health Department and local medical center. During 12 years
of service, no member has filed a complaint.
But after three years of respectful negotiation
with the Pennsylvania Insurance Department (PID), seeking status as a
pilot co-operative strictly regulated by high standards, regulators told us
to end our pledge campaign.
We 50 million uninsured Amercans risk chronic pain, job loss,
bankruptcy, eviction and early death. We often choose between
healing and eating. Philadelphia has 160,000
un-insured. Pennsylvania has 1.5 million
un-insured. Even our children lack health insurance (5%
in Philadelphia), and risk becoming orphans.
Some say that's okay. Health insurers and the American
Medical Association say if we haven't enough money we have no right to
the best health care, if any. We say we do, and are going to
push to the front of the line.
For decades, our access to full public health care has been blocked by
health insurance executives who raise premiums beyond our
reach. They corrupt legislators and regulators
to keep power.
So we're going ahead without their approval. By stubborn
refusal, Pennsylvania bureaucrats have required us to rebel, to protect
our lives.
The polite campaign for universal coverage-- Medicare for All-- has failed for 97 years.
Every decade has had its advocates. Thousands of conferences,
panel discussions, testimonials, petitions, lobbying days, letters to
editor and candlelight vigils have done nothing.
The American Way to conquer intolerable injustice-- like ending
slavery, securing votes for women and the eight-hour workday, gaining
Social Security and Civil Rights-- is to get angry and to get
threatening. And for the oppressed to take the lead, rather
than depend on others.
Therefore, to defend our lives, and secure a decent future for our
children, we un-insured Pennsylvanians are embarking on nonviolent
civil disobedience. We intend to spark revolt nationwide. |
HERE ARE SOME
NON-VIOLENT TACTICS
WE'LL DISCUSS AT THE MEETING:
DO IT ANYWAY.
The Ithaca Health Alliance exists in New York state only because a
group of average people asserted brute political power in violation of
law. They chose to violate law rather than violate humanity.
With no legal recourse, we
Philadelphians are now forming a health finance club, covering one
anothers' everyday emergencies as best we can. We will soon
issue a press release: "Americans Forced to Form Underground Movement
to Get Health Insurance." We wear face masks at our public
meetings. This will dramatize our case.
JOIN THE
MOVEMENT. We are creating the theatre and reality of
rebellion. You and 400 others are invited because you're on
the PhilaHealthia list. Send a photo or video of yourself
with a mask or bag on your head. Tell America why you're fed
up: paul5glover@yahoo.com
I'll publish these at healthdemocracy.org
MAIL COPIES
OF YOUR MEDICAL BILLS to Joel Ario, Commissioner of
Insurance, because he does not allow us to protect ourselves.
Sample note: "I am sending you this medical
bill asking that you pay it, since health care is too expensive and you
have prohibited us from helping ourselves."
Commissioner
Joel Ario, Pennsylvania Insurance Department, 1326 Strawberry Square,
Harrisburg, PA 17120
Let's start sending them to Cigna, too,
the killers of Nataline Sarkisyan, who lobby
against Medicare for All. Sample note: "I am
sending you this medical bill asking that you pay it, since health care
is too expensive and Cigna has lobbied against extending
Medicare." Cigna
HealthCare, PO Box 5225, Scranton, PA 18505-5225.
You might send your bills to anti-health
leaders Karen M. Ignagni, president of America's Health Insurance
Plans, a trade group; and Billy Tauzin, president of the Pharmaceutical
Research and Manufacturers of America, which represents drug companies.
The American Medical Association, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield
Association and the United States Chamber of Commerce, too.
Millions of extra medical bills yearly, from 50 million uninsured, will
force change.
We'll provide a list of Pennsylvania
Senators who voted against your health.
WE'RE MAKING
A MOVIE, like Sicko, for Pennsylvania, targeting
insurance executives, legislators and regulators. We will visit them in
their offices with cameras rolling. If they're not found in
their offices, or if we're denied entry, we will visit their golf
courses, country clubs and front yards. We will confront them
at conferences. We will broadcast their faces and the damage they cause.
INVITE STATE
LEGISLATORS AND STATE REGULATORS TO OUR MEETINGS.
Expect them to explain why they should have good health insurance, paid
by taxpayers' like us, while we have no health care. As
public servants, they will tell us face-to-face why we cannot create an
honest co-operative fund for preventive and emergency care.
Wear your face mask to the meeting.
DIVEST FROM
INSURANCE COMPANIES. Your wealthier family and
friends have investments in companies that enrich health insurance
stocks. Ask them to invest instead in companies that
strengthen communities and the environment instead. Direct or
indirect investments in HMOs are votes against reform. Let's
start with Cigna: People should
invest instead in local companies that repair the environment.
DEMAND BEST
CARE. We're organizing so that, when we're ill,
we go for care to the medical clinics relied on by legislators,
regulators and HMO executives. These provide the best
service, and we deserve the best. Take
yourself and friends to their clinics for best care. To get
quality health care when we need it, we un-insured will need to push to
the front of the line. We will film these encounters.
TAKE OVER
INSURANCE OFFICE BUILDINGS. If the above do not
gain our right to create self-financing co-op plans, we will shut them
down. Health unsurance companies fight for their
lives. So do we.
The
examples we set here are intended to spark local revolts nationwide. |
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