39% Rate Hike by Anthem-Blue Cross Persuaded CA Senator that Consumers need Choice of a Public Plan
 

Updated February 19, 2010 (Washington D.C.) – Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) has joined with 16 other Senators to urge that Majority Leader Harry Reid pass a public option for health insurance using reconciliation, a parliamentary procedure that allows a simple up-or-down vote with a majority of 51 Senators.

November 5, 2009 (San Diego) – Mary Bell, 25, cannot get health insurance anymore since overcoming a kidney infection two years ago. On Monday, Bell and two others (photo, left) were arrested following a three-day vigil at Blue Cross in San Diego. Blue Cross executives declined to meet with the protesters, who sought to ask the insurance giant to stop spending money on lobbying and political ads – and fund care of patients like Bell instead.

Sit-In Slated for Monday morning

October 30, 2009 (San Diego) --“Is there anything scarier than thinking you might need medical care, and getting canceled by a health insurance corporation who spent your premiums on TV ads and lobbying?” asks San Diegan Mike Copass, co-organizer of a 45-hour haunt of Blue Shield’s office at 2275 Rio Bonito Way in Mission Valley.

The actions are part of a national groundswell of civil disobedience at health insurance company offices by people seeking to end insurance abuse and win health care for all. So far, 115 people have been arrested in 18 cities demanding “real health care reform that treats health care like a human right, not a commodity,” according to a press release issued by event organizers.