Nine Americans Jailed This Morning When They Tried to Confront Senator Joe Lieberman for Accepting Insurance Company Money
Mobilization For Health Care for All Takes National Sit-In Campaign to Capitol Hill, ask “Who do You Represent, Joe, Corporations or Constituents?”
WASHINGTON, DC – Dozens of people held a sit-in at Senator Lieberman’s Capitol Hill office this morning to demand that Senator Lieberman pledge to stop taking health insurance company campaign contributions and free up funds so they can be used to pay for patient care. For 30 minutes, demonstrators requested to talk to Senator Lieberman and chanted "Patients not Profits, Health Care for All." They carried signs that say, “Insurance $ is making America sick.” Nine members of the Mobilization for Health Care for All sat down in the office lobby until forcibly removed by the police.
Those arrested:
1. Midge Potts
2. John *
3. Kai *
4. Brittany Florio
5. Linda Larson
6. Danielle Green
7. George Ripley
8. Katherine Banhart
9. Polly *
* People who gave only their first names are refusing to give their names to the police, seeking to stay in jail until Sen Lieberman pledges to stop taking private insurance company contributions.
The sit-in was part of a national mobilization called the Mobilization for Health Care for All (www.MobilizeForHealthCare.org) to end insurance abuse and win health care for all. The Mobilization for Health Care for All demands that insurance companies re-direct their lobbying funds to pay for doctor-requested treatments for people with life-threatening conditions. In some states, one in five of these requests is denied by insurance company bureaucrats.
“There is nothing more important to the general welfare of the nation than healthcare. We need a system that places patients before profits,” says George Ripley from Washington, DC, who was arrested this morning and remains in jail.
Since 1989, only 10 other current senators have brought in more cash from the health sector than Lieberman, who has collected $2.6 million in that time. Senator Lieberman has accepted over $110,000 from private health insurance Aetna in campaign contributions so far this year. In 2009, Aetna has already spent over $2 million dollars in lobbying for health care a system based on private coverage, while denying countless claims for patients who need treatment.
Sources: Center for Responsive Politics and OpenSecrets.org.
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Press Statement for Immediate Release: 11/5/2009 Contact: Sarah Massey 202 445-1169, Lacy MacAuley 202 445-4692
"Why I was arrested at Senator Lieberman's office for health care for all"
Kai, participant in sit-in at Senator Lieberman's office on Thursday
Kai, 29, is an uninsured American who believes that health care is a right. He helped launch the Mobilization for Health Care for All and participated in the first sit-in of the campaign at an Aetna office in New York City on September 29th. He then helped lead over 200 people in 26 cities across the country to risk arrest in other sit-ins to win health care for all.
Today, Kai was arrested at a sit-in in Senator Joe Lieberman's office calling upon him to publicly pledge that he will stop taking any money from insurance companies - money that those companies should be spending to pay for the care they deny to their members every day. Until Senator Lieberman takes this pledge, the American people cannot be certain that he is representing the people of Connecticut who need health care and not Aetna and the insurance companies that want to make huge profits. Kai has committed to remain in jail as long as he can until Senator Lieberman agrees to this pledge.
Here is Kai's statement:
"I put myself on the line today and was arrested and even stay in jail because people who can't get the health care they need are suffering and dying every day in America because insurance company profits come before patients in our country. This is wrong. In my own life, I have gone years without any insurance because I couldn't afford it, I've been denied doctor-recommended care by my insurance company, and I have watched with a broken heart one of the people I love most - my older brother - suffer years of untreated mental illness because neither he nor my family could afford to get him the care he needed. I believe health care is a right, and that it is a right worth fighting and sacrificing for just like the other civil rights that movements before us have struggled to win.
This is our moment - when our nation is focused on our broken health care system like never before. This is the moment that we have to rise to the occasion and do everything we can to make sure that no one in our country ever again has to suffer, be sick, go broke, or die because they can't afford to pay for the health care they need. We need a public, universal health care plan that puts patients before profit and guarantees the right to health care for all. The majority of Americans agree. But the insurance companies will do anything to keep us from getting it. They spend millions on misleading ads, armies of lobbyists, and huge campaign contributions to our elected officials to make sure real reform never happens. We can't let them get away with it - and we can't let the politicians that play along off the hook. It's time to hold them accountable and demand that they stand with the people that elect them not the companies that want to buy them. We need to demand that every politician in America publicly pledge to stop taking any money from insurance companies - and Joe Lieberman, the "Senator from Aetna" will be the first.
To finally win real health care reform, we need to organize the largest campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience since the civil rights movement. Already, hundreds of people have risked arrest all over the country - but we can't stop now. We have to fill the jails of America. Every one has a reason to join this fight. Generations of Americans have struggled to win the right to health care, we must be the last. I am determined to do everything I can to make it so - and I'm putting myself on the line to help lead the way. If I'm arrested at Senator Lieberman's office I will stay in jail as long as I can until he takes the pledge. But I can't do it without your support. Call and email Senator Lieberman to demand he take the pledge, sign the petition to him, donate to help build the campaign, and join a sit-in. Some can give a lot and others can only give a little, but please give whatever you can to help pay for any bail or legal fees for those of us who stay in jail.
I put my faith in the power of nonviolence - and in you. You are the heart of this campaign. Thanks for everything you do."
More info:
Mobilization for Health Care for All www.MobilizeForHealthCare.org
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