HEALTH CARE FOR AMERICA NOW
NEW YORK CITY ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 20, 2010

700 Health Care Activists March Across the Brooklyn Bridge
to Call Out the Special Interests That Are Obstructing Change in Washington

Activists Target Health Insurance Giant WellPoint
for Spending Millions of Dollars to Lobby Against Health Reform
While Planning to Raise Insurance Premiums 39% in California

On Saturday, February 20, a diverse cross-section of the New York progressive activist community, organized by Health Care for America Now’s (HCAN) New York City Organizing Committee, dramatically marched across the Brooklyn Bridge and rallied in protest outside the Manhattan offices of health insurance giant WellPoint, Inc.

Estimates put the crowd at 700.  During the march across the fabled landmark, the line of walkers stretched from one end of the bridge to the other.

The event was part of a nationwide mobilization, encompassing 40 rallies in 32 states.  Health reform activists from coast to coast are seeking to reignite momentum for the effort in Congress by taking to the streets to call out the special interests and political obstructionists who are stopping the “Change agenda” in Washington, DC.

In New York City, representatives of the faith community, doctors, nurses, patients and patient advocates, labor unions and progressives – marching across the famous landmark with colorful signs and creative “health insurance coverage” umbrellas – sought to deliver a simple message:  Get health care reform done, get it done right, and get it done now!  

"Hundreds of New Yorkers are taking to the streets today because New York, like America, voted for change – and now it's time for our political leaders to deliver on their promise of change," said Mark Hannay, Director of the Metro New York Health Care for All Campaign and Co-Coordinator of the NYC Organizing Committee for Health Care for America Now.

 "Comprehensive health care reform is the wedge issue for the entire change agenda, and that's why, among other reasons, Congress and the President must get health care done now and do it right,” said Mr. Hannay.  “If health care moves forward, so does a good jobs bill, good labor law reform, good climate change legislation, strong financial services reform, and real immigration reform.  The special interests, such as health insurers, and their political allies are blocking all these changes.  Making change happen is all about beating back the opponents of change and moving forward to a better America.”

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Statement by Mark Hannay
Director, Metro New York Health Care for All Campaign
Co-Coordinator, NYC Organizing Committee, Health Care for America Now

February 20, 2010
Outside 1 Liberty Plaza, New York City

 Hello, my fellow New Yorkers, and welcome to our Rally for Health Care Reform and the Change Agenda!  And thank all of you who walked across the Bridge to show our nation and our city that New Yorkers believe in and demand affordable health care for all in America!

 Today is one of over 40 events happening all across America this week to put health care back on the map and moving forward again in Congress. Let me tell you about just a few of them: 

• Up in Albany, nearly 100 people rallied outside the offices of the New York Health Plan Association to expose the insurance industry’s efforts to stop health care reform bills in Washington and Albany. Afterwards, they visited scores of state legislators’ offices to tell our state government to do rein in sky-high health insurance premium increases. 
• Across the river in New Jersey, scores of "water cooler gatherings" were held at workplaces to explain what's really in the Congressional health care bills, and several "honk-ins" were held along major streets and roadways.  
• In Philadelphia, hundreds attended a send-off rally to launch a week-long, 135-mile "relay march" to Washington.  Dozens of people are right now walking across Delaware and Maryland, through banks of snow, in memory of Melanie Shouse, a veteran health care activist who died of breast cancer because she didn't have affordable insurance.  
• In Augusta, Maine, people rallied at the State House and confronted U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe about her troublesome record on health care reform. 
• Up in Hartford, activists and small business owners joined forces for a literal "pitchfork and torches" brigade.  
• In Illinois, people held sit-ins and die-ins in Congressmembers’ offices, and left behind dozens of pairs of worn shoes to represent those who died because they couldn’t get or afford health care. 
• In Seattle, over 10,000 people turned out for a mega-rally. 

We’re gathered here on this sunny, warm winter afternoon here in NYC to wrap this week of events all up.  And we’re to proclaim three things:

 1.      To our political leaders – President Obama, Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, and our entire NYC Congressional delegation—we say:  “Get health care done, get it done right, and get it done NOW!”   and we say: “Listen to us, real everyday New Yorkers and Americans, and STOP LISTENING TO THE SPECIAL INTERESTS AND THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY!  Pass health care that works for US, not them  … NOW!”

 2.     To the political obstructionists in Congress, we say, “America voted for change, so get out of the way, because, to paraphrase Curtis Mayfield, “A change is comin’, we don’t need your baggage, just get on-board.”

 3.     And finally, to the special interests – insurance companies, drug companies, medical equipment and supply manufacturers, for-profit hospital and nursing home chains, and all the Wall St. investment firms that make money off of them— we say: “Time’s up – the gravy train is over! We are finally going to put patients before profits in America.”

Let me tell you a bit about the health insurer who’s offices we stand outside of today:

• WellPoint is our nation’s largest insurance companies by membership.  They’ve been in the news a lot lately.  Their California subsidiary, Anthem Blue Cross, is raising the insurance premiums of over 800,000 people in California, some by almost 40%.  Many people will have to drop their coverage and become uninsured.  The company’s CEO said, “We will not sacrifice profitability to membership.”

Wellpoint is the poster child of why we need good health care reform, and we need it now, and why Congress should listen to us, and not to BIG Insurance:

• WellPoint is a company comprised of subsidiaries that were former non-profit Blue Cross plans, but now they are all for-profit.

From 2000 to 2008, WellPoint’s net income rose from $226M per year, to nearly $2.5B, more than a 1,000% increase.

• From 2000-2008, the total compensation WellPoint paid its CEO rose from $2.5M to $9.8M, a nearly 400% increase.

Over the past year, WellPoints profits increased 91% over the previous year, with net income of nearly $5B.  Meanwhile, total enrollment fell almost 4%, as nearly 1.5M dropped their coverage.  At the same time, the company spent over $2.5B to stock buy-backs, rather than paying for medical care for policyholders.

• Last year, WellPoint spent nearly $5M on lobbying in Washington, most of it to stop comprehensive health care reform proposals. Since 2007, the company and its employees also made over $1M in contributions to political candidates.

Last year, Wellpoint drained $200M out of its NY subsidiary, Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield, totaling 2.5% of the company’s total premium income.  Consequently, that money is now longer available to pay for health care for New Yorkers.  Recently, Empire raised rates for small businesses in New York by nearly 20%.

• Just days before the rate increases in California were announced, three members of Wellpoint’s board of directors cashed out stock holdings in the company.  They knew that once these huge price increases were announced, a public uproar would occur, and the company’s stock price would drop, which it has, by almost 4%. These board members netted over a cool $600,000.

Right now, the entire change agenda in Congress right now hinges on getting health care done.  If the special interests stop us on health care, they stop us on everything else: no good jobs bill, no Employee Free Choice Act, no real climate change bill, no strong regulation of banks and Wall St., no just immigration reform, no decent student loans and grants, no cleaning up of our electoral system, and no political reform in Washington.  Right now, the special interests have stopped progress on all of these issues.

Health care is the wedge issue for the entire change agenda. If we can beat the strangle-hold the special interests and insurance companies on health care, then the whole rest of the change agenda will move too.  And we can make change happen if we all work together, if we all say to our political leaders, “We voted for change, and we demand health care change, NOW.”

To get to our goal of health care change, we gotta’ beat back the powerful special interests.  We can’t let them stand in our way.  We gotta’ stay in the fight until we’re done.  They ain’t going to quit, and neither are we!  We gotta’ get the best damn bill we can get.  Then we gotta’ keep on fighting in the future to make things better.  And whatever we do, we cannot, and will not, let the special interests win on health care again, as they have time and time again over the last 100 years.  They will not win this time – no way, no how!

So, we’re here today to demand change, and the way forward on change is to finish health care reform, finish it right, and finish it NOW! And we’re here today to recommit ourselves to the fight for change, and for health care justice.  And we’re not going to stop until we’re done! 

So in the words of the election of change,… si se puede – yes we can!

Metro New York Health Care for All - 40 Worth Street, Suite 802, New York, NY 10013 - Phone: 212-925-1829