14 Arrested in NYC for You and Me

I am writing tonight hoping that my brothers and sisters are out of jail by now. Brothers and sisters? Well, that's how I look at the 14 people who got arrested at United Health's Headquarters in Manhattan yesterday after staging a sit-in to protest United Health's practices and to call for Medicare for All.

Before I get into the outrageous stats on United Health and the outcome of our demonstration at their headquarters yesterday, I have to ask, where are you during this debate? What are you doing to make your voice heard? An estimated 45,000 of your fellow Americans die every year due to lack of health insurance and yet, out of nearly 100 people I have sent emails to on this issue, I have had only a handful of responses. Why don't you care? Or is it just that you feel helpless? I hope it's the latter but if it is, get over it. Please stand up and do something for your fellow citizens. Do something for yourselves and your families. If you think you are immune to this issue, you are wrong. Anyone can lose their health insurance at any time. Catastrophe can strike anyone and I'm tired of reading the stories in the newspapers about lives that were ruined or ended because of lack of health insurance or refusal by an insurance company to pay benefits.

Let's take a look at United Health now and let's see that they, like most private health insurance companies (if not all), are indeed an evil to battle against:

• United Health is the 21st largest corporation in the world
• Last year alone United Health collected $75 billion in premiums
• In the first part of 2009, United Health spent $3.4 million buying congressional influence regarding our health care legislation
• United Health has been underpaying doctors and denying care to patients so egregiously that it was forced to pay $350 million in a class action lawsuit filed by the American Medical Association last year

And the list goes on. So, I ask again, where is the outrage and what will you do to work for universal health care for all Americans?

It's very simple, really. There are many organizations devoted to bringing universal healthcare to America. They are making it easy for you to make your voice heard. Here are just a couple:

http://www.healthcare-now.org/

http://mobilizeforhealthcare.org/

Yesterday on the subway I was carrying a bag of signs for the protest at United Health. Several people who noticed the signs asked me if I was going to a demonstration. When I replied, "Yes - for Medicare for All", people were very supportive. Perhaps the most surprising support came from an NYPD police officer who stood next to me on the train. When I told him about the demonstration, he told me that America was becoming more and more a country of haves and have nots. That it used to be just the minorities that were victims but now it was the white people, too. I know, I said. I couldn't agree more. Is this the America we want to be a part of? I don't think so. So, please - for you and for me, take a stand. Do something for your 14 brothers and sisters in NYC and the others across the country yesterday who went to jail for the greater good. Do something, anything, to make your voice heard.