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Angry citizens vow arrests at Sen. Dodd fundraiser with Vice President Biden
What: Protest at Senator Dodd fundraising event with Vice President Biden to demand single-payer health reform
When: Friday, December 11, 2009, Human Rights Day at 11 a.m.
Where: CT Science Center, 250 Columbus Street, Hartford, CT
Who: Green Party of CT and Mobilization for Health Care for All, a national civil disobedience campaign
Why: Demand “Medicare for All” (Single Payer Healthcare Reform)
Declaring health care to be a human right, hundreds of advocates for a single-payer, Medicare-for-All health program will protest at 18 senators’ offices around the country on Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day. Many will risk arrest by committing acts of civil disobedience.
Organizers say the coordinated sit-ins and other actions will spotlight the “complete inadequacy” of the present House and Senate bills, which, they say, will leave at least 17 million people uninsured and millions more with shoddy coverage, unprotected from skyrocketing medical costs.
The actions are part of a national civil disobedience campaign for single-payer health reform led by the Mobilization for Health Care for All. The campaign has gained notoriety for having organized more than 35 sit-ins across the country in recent weeks, targeting private health insurance companies and exposing their role as the real “death panels” that decide who lives and who dies based on ability to pay.
Medicare-for-All supporters advocate a publicly financed, privately delivered health care system similar to Medicare. The single-payer system would be financed entirely through taxes, cover everyone, ensure freedom to choose doctors, and save about $400 billion annually by eliminating wasteful paperwork, bureaucracy and insurance company profits. The vast majority of people would pay less in taxes than what they presently pay for premiums and out-of-pocket costs like co-pays and deductibles.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, introduced a single-payer amendment to the Senate leadership’s health bill on December 2nd that would essentially replace the existing bill’s language with an improved Medicare-for-All plan. Sanders has also announced plans to introduce another measure that would permit individual states to experiment with their own single-payer programs.
December 10th is the 61st anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, of which the United States is a signatory. Single-payer actions commemorating Human Rights Day are taking place in 18 cities. For a complete list, see http://mobilizeforhealthcare.org/upcoming-actions/.
Filed under: Action Alert!, activism, health care, Healthcare, News
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