Northwest: June 19th, 2008

Northwest: June 19th, 2008

Protest the Insurance Companies' Convention in SF!


Healthcare YES! Insurance Companies NO!
Protest the Insurance Companies' Convention in SF

Thursday, June 19, 12 Noon
Moscone Center West
4th St at Howard, SF

On June 19, hundreds of people from all walks of life will demonstrate in San Francisco at the national convention of health insurance companies. For years, these companies have bankrupted us, denied us healthcare, and ripped apart the social safety net. Now they want to force themselves down the throats of our 47 million with no health coverage.

We demand single-payer healthcare: equal, comprehensive, low-cost, accessible healthcare for everyone. It would be delivered by today's doctors, clinics, and hospitals, but paid for by a single, publicly-accountable government-operated agency. No insurance companies! In California, it’s SB 840. Nationally, it’s HR 676.

Inside the convention, executives of America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) will meet with top political and policy advisors of both parties to create "universal healthcare" by forcing everyone to buy private health insurance. Everyone pays unaffordable premiums, deductibles, and co-pays. Poor people get worse care. Government spends billions to (barely) help poor people pay their premiums. It’s welfare for insurance companies and Katrina-care for us.

Outside, at our demonstration, nationally-recognized advocates and legislators for single-payer healthcare will speak, along with health workers, victims of insurance abuse, long-time union members with no healthcare, seniors for whom Medicare is not enough, and people driven into poverty by healthcare costs.

National attention will be focused on this convention because of the healthcare crisis, so this is a rare opportunity. Everyone knows somebody who has been hurt by insurance companies or the lack of healthcare. Let’s throw these parasites’ sugary words of concern for the uninsured back in their teeth. Healthcare YES! Insurance Companies NO! Please call 415-695-7891 for more information.

For a list of groups bringing people and leaflets, go to http://singlepayernow.net/