Important note for Kossacks in San Francisco: If you're attending the demonstration, please look for us at 12 noon at 4th and Howard Street - Moscone West. We'll be carrying a large orange banner which will say, (of course), DAILY KOS.
Thousands of Americans are assembling today at 12 noon today outside the Moscone West Convention Center in San Francisco. We're here to demonstrate against AHIP and for single-payer healthcare in the United States--what the rest of the civilized world accepts as normal.
AHIP is the chief lobbyist of the for profit Murder By Spreadsheet insurance industry.
It's the first time AHIP has held its annual convention and been greeted with thousands of outraged Americans. We're going to give them a hearty welcome to the City by the Bay.
We're here because AHIP is a parasitic organization whose only purpose is to take money and destroy lives. Before the day ends, AHIP will know it can no longer waltz into a great American city unchallenged. We will fight AHIP wherever it goes. And ultimately the American people will get guaranteed and affordable single-payer healthcare.
May I tell you about some wonderful people who are here to join the protest.
Yesterday, I had lunch with Hilda Sarkisyan, the beautiful mother of the late Nataline Sarkisyan When she met me we hugged. Her eyes watered up and her voice trembled. She spoke quietly and with great dignity. "Thank you", she said, "and thank everyone on Daily Kos for what they did to try and save my daughter." Her pain and anguish is raw and palpable. But Hilda Sarkisyan is one strng woman, and she has decided to fight for universal healthcare to honor the memory of her beloved daughter.
Rick Colombo is also here. You probably remember that his son, Nick Colombo was denied a cyberknife treatment by Pacificare, until you stepped in. Well guess what? Pacificare would have left Nick for dead. He graduated from high school last week. Case closed on Pacificare denying medically necessary care.
Hilda Sarkisyan and the Colombo Family are the anguished faces of American citizens (never forget it could be any of us)--insured Americans--who have paid astronomical insurance premiums only to be denied care at the very moment they need it by the Murder By Spreadsheet health insurance industry.
Hilda Sarkisyan cannot understand why the rest of the civilized world enjoys healthcare as a right, but not in the United States. You should feel nothing but horror that in 2008, healthcare in the United States is a privilege few can afford.
Returning for a moment to the spectacle in the Moscone Center.
There is not one redeeming word you can say about this outlaw organization. They are scorned by the American people. So what do you think they've done? They've recently launched a website called AHIP Believes, here you'll find their abject lies neatly packaged into deceit-laden press releases.
AHIP Believes will twist itself and the truth into an unrecognizable ball of sludge in an attempt to convince its three readers that the insurance industry stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the American people. This could not be further from the truth. Only profits, not the truth matters to AHIP.
Leave it to a nurse, DeAnn McEwen, writing in a new healthcare blog, Guaranteed Healthcare to explain why we must rid the earth of this parasitic organization and the terrible hurt it inflicts on the American people.
Returning again to the AHIP lie machine, which exists to make Americans think that they are working to make healthcare guaranteed and affordable. This is a nonsensical oxymoron. Healthcare cannot be affordable while maintaining the depraved status quo. As we know, the status quo is about one objective and one objective only: PROFITS.
AHIP will not succeed in 2008 and 2009, because you and I have more power than they have and we won't let them. They will experience our power today.
The other day, none other than Ben Bernanke issued a warning about sharply escalating health care costs. For-profit healthcare is unsustainable. This isn't coming from nyceve, read Bernanke.
For-profit healthcare is destroying the fabric of our nation.
We know that 31 percent of every healthcare dollar goes into the pockets of the private insurance companies which AHIP champions.
And if you doubt a word I've written, I urge you to read this incredible article by Dean Baker in The Guardian about health insurance claims denials.
We know that taking back our country requires all of us to make our voices heard. Today, is just the beginning.
If you live in San Francisco, join us, look for the orange DAILY KOS banner. We're going to be right outside Moscone West. Please join us.
And a huge debt of gratitude and I mean a huge thank you, to the heroes at The California Nurses Association for taking the lead in organizing this historic protest.
I'll try to give you updates if I can get to a computer. And hopefully other Kossacks will post diaries throughout the day.