San Francisco protesters target health care for profit

On March 19 activists for universal, single payer and Medicare-for-all health care rallied and marched through the upscale high-rise shopping and office complex, Embarcadero 2, in the San Francisco financial district. They attempted to enter the local office of the “health non-care for profit” Anthem Blue Cross California, a subsidiary of WellPoint Inc., a health care corporation with $9 billion in annual profits.

They carried signs saying, “Corporate Insurance Kills” and “Healthcare YES, Insurance Companies NO,” and chanted, “You say health care! We say wealth care!” and “What do we want? Single payer! When do we want it? Now!”

The marchers were prevented from entering the office by four “suits in authority” and uniformed San Francisco cops. A spokesperson from Direct Action for Single Payer, Kate Raphael, who was leading the attempt to enter, then requested that the two primary targets of the action, WellPoint CEO Angela Brady and Anthem Blue Cross California President Leslie Margolin, come outside to speak to the crowd.

After attaching bright yellow crime scene tape to the doorway, Raphael read a warrant for grand theft and profiteering, naming Brady and Margolin. When, after a delay, the activists were informed that neither corporate head would speak to them nor send a lackey to speak for them, the group angrily chanted, “We’ll be back!”

For more information, see www.actforsinglepayer.org.