This video was shot with the iPhone 3GS Visit us at http://www.hillbillyreport.org/ Activist in Louisville held health care a rally across the street from Humana in Louisville Kentucky Thursday 10.29.09. They held a press conference at 10:00 am and then marched across the street to the Humana building, entered the building, sit down and started singing and chanting peacefully.
Humana shut the building down at 6:00 pm leaving the the protestors with no bathroom facilities and told the protesters if they left the building to use the restroom they would not be able to get back in. The protesters decided to spend the night. I called Rev. David Bos, retired Louisville Presbyterian minister and one of the protestors staying overnight at Humana around 3:00am this morning and he said they were going to leave the building around noon Friday 10.30.09.
The purpose of the rally was to to promote single payer national health insurance that will, among other things, remove the insurance companies from the provider-patient relationship and to protest health insurers practice of maximizing profits by denying treatments prescribed by doctors.
Statement from Dr. Garrett Adams:
History clearly teaches that pivotal advances for social justice in American society were initiated by courageous actions by committed citizens. Independence from Great Britain, abolition of slavery, womens suffrage and civil rights all began with revolutionary actions expressing citizen outrage at the status quo. We are at this moment again. Let us now stand up for all of our fellow citizens who suffer and have suffered from injustice inflicted by a cruel health care system that values financial gain for a few over the welfare of all. Physicians for a National Health Program-Kentucky is proud to join our fellow citizens in protest against this system and to advocate for transformational change for non-profit national health insurance.
Rev. David Bos, retired Louisville Presbyterian minister, said, "We need to change the debate because we are not getting it within Congress. We need to bring it back to a place of integrity and morality." He and the group he represents--Kentuckians for Single Payer Healthcare (KSPH)--said that healthcare should not be based on profits. They claim that the profits and overhead of the insurance companies could be redirected to a program that would cover everyone with no deductibles and the type of affordable monthly fees that now support the Medicare Program. Rev. Bos said he would be requesting Humana to stop denying doctor-directed treatments for some patients.
Kay Tillow, head of KSPH, said healthcare in the United States has reached a crisis stage. "A Harvard study shows that 45,000 Americans die each year because they lack access to healthcare," she said. "That's one person every 12 minutes."
None of the three major health reform bills in Congress incorporate the Single Payer concept, which basically has everyone and every business pay into a federal agency (a single payer such as the Medicare administration) and payments would be passed out to private vendors such as doctors, hospitals and medical equipment suppliers. Every patient would have the choice of doctors and hospitals.
The local Single Payer groups are not endorsing the so-called "public option" bills because they don't go far enough. They restrict many people from opting for a government plan, they appear to be unaffordable for some people and they don't cover every one. However, the biggest strike against the public option plans is the lack of reduction of healthcare costs because the main problem is the insurance industry, which still has a role in public option plans.
Other groups supporting the KSPH action are Hoosiers for a Commonsense Healthcare Plan, Move-On.org, peace and justice groups and five major religious denominations.
Great video Jim! You rock!
curtmorrison 2 years ago
Thanks Curt, I shot the video with my iPhone 3GS.
HillbillyReport 2 years ago