Protest of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois - August 29, 2007
"Everybody in! Nobody out!"
"Health care, not warfare!"
"Blue Cross Blue Shield, what do you say? How many claims denied today?"
On the afternoon of August 29, some 50 people, enthusiastically chanting
these and other slogans, marched, passed out leaflets, collected signatures,
and spoke in favor of single payer universal health care. The demonstration,
organized by the recently formed Chicago Single Payer Action Network, took
place in front of the headquarters of Blue Cross Blue Shield Illinois,
chosen as both example and familiar symbol of what is wrong with the United
States health care system.
Representative Mary Flowers, co-sponsor with Mike Boland of HB 311, the
Health Care for All Illinois Bill, spoke to the group, thanking them for
their activism on behalf of universal health care, and promising to do
everything in her power to advance the cause.
Other speakers included students of the health professions, nurses, a
doctor, and social workers; and represented organizations that have endorsed
single payer universal health care: Access Living, American Medical Student
Association, Health Care for All Illinois, Illinois Green Party,
International Socialist Organization, Kucinich Campaign Chicago,
Metropolitan Seniors in Action, Physicians for a National Health Program,
and Progressive Democrats of America.
Themes of the brief but deeply passionate speeches included the
impossibility that a system that includes insurance companies can provide
care to everyone; HB 311; the struggle of disabled people to remain out of
nursing homes and in the community; health care workers' inability to
provide and find care for patients; and the need for the expansion of grass
roots activism at the state and national levels.
Donna Smith, one of the patients featured in Sicko and founder of American
Patients for Universal Health Care, sent a letter of both support and demand
for further action.
Some passersby joined in the demonstration; some Blue Cross Blue Shield
employees, despite leaving the building through a side door away from the
picketers, whispered interest and support.
Other organizations and professions represented in the demonstration
included speech pathology, Health Care Now, National Nurses Organizing
Committee, and Older Women's League.
-Written by ChiSPAN member Anne Scheetz
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ChiSPAN member Alison McKenna telling the story of one of the millions of uninsured Americans suffering from the broken health care system.
ChiSPAN member Anne Scheetz detailing the greed of Blue Cross Blue Shield