Howard Dean Joins Pro Health Care Reform Protesters Who Surround Ritz Carlton

[democracy1st]

Run time: 05:25 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Scgw-WtyLlA   Posted on YouTube: March 10, 2010 By YouTube Member: MoxNewsDotCom Views on YouTube: 65   Posted on DU: March 10, 2010 By DU Member: democracy1st Views on DU: 642

 
http://MOXNews.com/
March 09, 2010 CNN


Hundreds if not thousands of protesters and labor activists descended upon the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Washington today to try to make things a little more difficult for the health insurance lobbyists and executives gathered inside.

The protest was organized by Health Care for America Now, a group that describes itself as being "fed up with skyrocketing premiums, denials of care and claims, and insurance companies spending tens of millions of dollars to kill or manipulate reform." The lobbying group America's Health Insurance Plans was holding its annual policy conference at the hotel.

Protesters first gathered in nearby Dupont Circle, where former Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean told them: "We deserve a vote! Are you for the insurance companies or are you for the American people?"

The enthusiastic crowd -- which organizers put at 5,000 people but appeared a bit less -- then marched seven blocks to the Ritz Carlton chanting "Hey, hey, ho, ho, Insurance companies have got to go!" and staged a mass "citizens' arrest" of the insurance executives participating in the conference.

Among the protesters was Lillian Allen, a 101-year-old woman from Pittsburgh who is passionate about health care reform. Allen, a regular on the D.C. health care protest scene, told HuffPost: "Everybody ought to have health insurance. What would I do if I didn't have it? I wouldn't be turning 102 in April."

"I know it from both sides; the system's broken," said Terence Gerace, a doctor and cancer survivor from Washington. "It's a for-profit system. A significant amount of cost goes to executives, and not the providers, and it needs to be rectified. It's an immoral system as it currently stands."


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/09/health-care-protesters-fa_n_492011.html

[eagertolearn]

1. Love that woman who is almost 102! She is probably still alive because she is still active

and fighting for a cause.

[JDPriestly]

2. I wonder how much this female newscaster was paid by the insurance

companies to make that statement. What an idiotic statement. Obviously, all Americans are concerned that the CEOs of the insurance companies take home millions for denying necessary care to subscribers to their insurance. How in the world could any American support the insurance companies' methods in denying the claims of needy Americans?

[ro1942]

3. Good point, thanks