Nataline Keeps Bending the Arc of Healthcare Justice

[waiting for hope]

Run time: 05:50 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qskpO2nC2Ys   Posted on YouTube: October 31, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: November 02, 2009 By DU Member: waiting for hope Views on DU: 2056

 

by Donna Smith
Published on Sunday, November 1, 2009 by CommonDreams.org

"Someday, my story will be your story," Gregor Sarkisyan, father of the late Nataline Sarkisyan, 17, who died December 20, 2007, as CIGNA denied her care. She could be your child, she could be my child, she was his child. Watch Gregor's still grief-stricken face as he tries again to get some answers that never come.

He spoke at the CIGNA protest in Glendale, CA, on October 28, 2009. Nothing in the current reform bills will stop this. Nothing.

Covering pre-existing conditions and lifting lifetime caps does not stop these profit mongers from denying any and all treatments that reduce their profits for shareholders. There will be more Nataline Sarkisyan stories under the new reform than there already are as denying treatment becomes the main way for the insurance companies to raise profits. More pain. More suffering. More death.

While Congress pats itself on the back and President Obama claims a victory, more children will die. This healthcare reform does not get us to the place where we can know that our care decisions are about health not wealth. It moves us to more uncertainty and it remains a dishonest discussion about all the broken parts of the system, and the reform leaves us at serious risk. Forcing us to buy the product that killed Nataline and leaving in place the defective mechanisms in that product that caused her death is a failure beyond imagination.

~Snip~

Healthcare is a basic human right, and we know President Obama knows that. We just don't know if granting this human right to all he seeks to lead will continue to be his fight with us.

"The arc of history bends toward justice," the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. , told us. We cannot know where we are on that arc, but together we will sharpen that bend.

Follow the money. Stay in the fight. It matters.

Donna Smith is a community organizer for the California Nurses Association and National Co-Chair for the Progressive Democrats of America Healthcare Not Warfare campaign.

Link

[Tansy_Gold]

1. First rec.

Every time I see or hear that asswipe L***erman's name I think of Gregor Sarkisyan.

Joe, I hope you never have to face one of your children under the circumstances he did. And I also hope that every night you dream of Nataline and her parents.

All of you know, of course, that CIGNA, the insurance company whose death panel killed a 17 year old girl and broke her parents' hearts is an arm of CONNECTICUT General Life Insurance Company.

Damn you to fucking hell, Joe Lieberman, and every fucking insurance executive who continues to live -- LIVE -- high on the hog while condemning a new Nataline to death every day.



Lieberman should be voted KO's worst person in the world every day.






Tansy Gold

[waiting for hope]

2. I personally think all of congress should

have their health care benefits stripped - until they can realize that every American deserves the same.

[Tansy_Gold]

3. I'll go along with that.

They don't get it until EVERYONE gets it.

Not health INSURANCE -- health CARE.

[ProgressOnTheMove]

4. *Grabs hold of the arc and gives big push*

[bertman]

5. As I watch this moving video I can't help but wonder what is going through the heads

of the police officers who were assigned to protect the Cigna execs from these dangerous citizens. Of course, their duty demands that they not show any sign of sympathy or support for the lawbreaking demonstrators, but surely they are moved by the stories they heard.

A HUGE thank you to the doctor and to the others who were willing to go to jail for their belief in healthcare for all.

Meanwhile, we get to listen to our Congressional Reps and Senators AND OUR PRESIDENT tell us that we cannot move too fast on ensuring that all Americans have decent healthcare. We must move slowly so we do not anger the healthcare industry and pharmaceutical industry donors who help keep our Congress subservient to their profit-making criminality.

Recommend. Thanks for posting this, waiting for hope.

[waiting for hope]

7. I'm glad to see Gregor Sarkisyan still out there

fighting - most people might have folded by now considering the circumstances he has gone through. I wonder about the police too - they are not the highest paid employees, I wonder if they have had the threat of bankruptcy looming over their heads from medical bills, or even worse, lost a loved one because they were denied or couldn't afford it.

[ProleNoMore]

6. Our Congressional Leaders, Congressional Democratic Members, And Obama

Have all let a golden opportunity for change slip by yet again.

[bertman]

8. maybe we can salvage this, ProleNoMore. We have to keep the pressure on. There are

more steps to be taken in formulating the final bill.

[ProleNoMore]

11. Agreed - My Telephone Will Have No Rest Tomorrow!

eom

[scentopine]

9. Inspiring leadership and civil disobedience - nt

[waiting for hope]

10. Kick

[Hulk]

12. Gestapo...

Do these "policemen" realize just what thugs they are allowing themselves to become? They LOOK LIKE thugs. Give them brown shirts, and we'll just imagine the little red cross on their sleeve instead of the swastika.

[PHIMG]

13. MEDICARE FOR ALL!

We will not get real reform from a money-dominated political system (includes the Democratic party).

No more sausage factory healthcare bills. We must DEMAND real reform. The people's bill - HR 676 - MEDICARE FOR ALL.

[chadmak09]

14. THANK GOD!!!!!!!

ITS ABOUT TIME!!

Finally something that gives me a little hope in all this.

Here's a Train we all need to jump on.

[chadmak09]

15. did u guys see

The cop in the street at the end when they were cheering??

The cop raised his hand to say "right on".

THat saya alot.