Sit-ins call for Medicare for all

As a plethora of “health care reform” bills circulate through the halls of Congress, a new movement is emerging on the streets—taking the fight for health care reform directly to the doors of the health insurance industry giants who, for all too long, have put their profits before people’s care.

Baltimore sit-in for single-payer health care. WW photos: Sharon Black

Using tactics reminiscent of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Mobilization for Health Care for All has launched a “Patients Not Profits” campaign of sit-ins at insurance company offices across the U.S. to demand “Medicare for all.”

Launched at the end of September, when 16 activists were arrested for occupying the lobby of Aetna Inc. in New York to demand that the company approve immediate care for people with critical conditions, this movement has spread through coast-to-coast actions.

On Oct. 15, sit-ins took place at offices of major insurers in nine cities. Since Oct. 28 direct actions against the health insurance industry and in favor of a single-payer health care system have been held in many others, including Augusta, Ga.; Columbus, Ohio; Sunrise, Fla.; Newark, N.J.; Seattle; Virginia Beach, Va.; and Warwick, R.I. More are planned through Nov. 4. To date, more than 200 people have risked arrest and the numbers are growing.

On Oct. 29 dozens marched outside the CareFirst office in Baltimore wearing bright yellow T-shirts with the slogan “People Not Profits,” while a smaller group went inside and got arrested. One arrestee was 81-year-old Charles Loubert, who was denied health care several years ago by his insurer. Dr. Margaret Flowers also took an arrest at the CareFirst office, despite the risk of a 6-month jail sentence for violating her probation from a previous arrest.

On Oct. 30 in Louisville, Ky., seven activists occupied the offices and lobby of the Humana Corporation for over 24 hours. They vowed to stay until Humana met their demands.

Outside the Blue Cross Blue Shield building in Philadelphia the same day, nearly 80 protesters picketed and chanted, “Let the corporate giants fall! Medicare for all!” in a spirited demonstration that drew in a number of passersby. Many were young adults from the population sector least likely to have employer-paid insurance. Members of the Student Healthcare Action Network were among 13 people arrested for blocking the building entrance.

Protesters have charged the health insurance industry with crimes including murder, breach of contract, theft and waste of U.S. health care dollars, and subverting democracy by spending huge amounts of health premium money on lobbying and contributing to politicians.

With all the congressional debate over a public option, these sit-ins are driving home the point that the real public option must be Medicare for all—a single-payer plan that cuts out the profits of the insurance company intermediaries.

Under the current system, at least 30 cents out of every dollar spent on health care goes to insurance company profits and administrative waste. According to health industry research firm McKinsey & Co., almost two-thirds of insurance company overhead goes to underwriting, sales and marketing—business costs that would not exist in a single-payer system.

While far more is spent on health care in the U.S. than in any other industrialized country, an estimated 50 million people are not insured and 45,000 die every year for lack of care. While providing everyone health care insurance, the single-payer plan would cut costs by using only one not-for-profit administrator.

The profits of the top 10 health insurance companies went up 428 percent from 2000 to 2007. CEOs of large health insurance companies typically make $7 million to $12 million a year or more in salaries. Aetna’s CEO, Ron Williams, made $24 million last year.

Mobilization for Health Care for All’s Web site notes, “The insurance companies are spending millions to confuse and scare the public to keep us from ending their grip on our health and our money. With tea-bagger town hall protestors and the right-wing noise machine on their side, they’re winning. We can’t let that happen. It’s time to take the fight to the real villain in the health care debate.”

These protests are also motivated by frustration over the slow progress and limited content of the bills in Congress that more and more appear to benefit the health insurance industry while still denying care to the millions in need.

‘Public option’ a raw deal

None of the bills currently under discussion offers a single-payer option, which was shut out of the debate early on. The single-payer option H.R. 676 bill introduced by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) remains tied up in committee.

The public option proposals are not single-payer plans but government-sponsored “alternatives” to private insurance. Some could actually end up being more expensive to individuals than current insurance plans.

A scaled-back government plan in the House bill might actually favor private insurers. This plan, which would not be fully phased in until 2019, would cover about 6 million people, or 2 percent of a total of the 282 million people in the U.S. under age 65.

Some plans offer new “marketplaces” for consumers to compare rates and benefits, but there are no guarantees that any of these rates would be affordable for low-income workers. While the health care bills would extend coverage to uninsured people by providing government help with premiums to people under a certain income, most would have to wait until 2013 for this coverage. Even then, many would have to pay a significant share of their own health care costs.

Proposals to tax individuals who fail to purchase insurance could also negatively impact low-wage workers and small employers. Workers could make too much to qualify for government assistance in purchasing insurance, while not earning enough to pay expensive premiums. These workers could end up being penalized by higher taxes yet still be uninsured.

The groups hardest hit by nearly all the plans are the working poor—those who make more than the poverty level but not enough to afford private health insurance premiums. Many are in service industry jobs or are employed by small companies that can’t afford to offer insurance. Among this group, many are women, including a significant number of Latina workers.

None of the legislation being proposed would cover undocumented workers, even though these workers often pay Social Security and Medicare taxes but can’t receive the benefits.

While all the plans seem to propose restrictions on gender-based insurance rates and on the insurance industries’ past practices of refusing care based on pre-existing conditions, none places any cap on how high insurance premiums could go in the future.