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Presidential Town Hall on Health Care: Tables Turned on Private Insurance Industry, Called Out for Not Doing Their Part in Reform
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Statement by Health Rights Organizing Project
Thursday, Jun 25, 2009Contacts: Germonique R. Ulmer gulmer@communitychange.org;
202-339-9331
Washington-In a critical moment during last night’s historic Presidential town hall that gave Americans a chance to ask President Obama questions about health care, the CEO of one of America’s major insurance companies, Ronald Williams, was asked a tough question himself. Diane Sawyer of ABC News asked Aetna CEO Williams to account for the billions of dollars in profits and skyrocketing premiums.
“Instead of giving Americans a
straight answer, one of the leading insurance CEOs in
America actually
whined about having to compete to provide lower costs and better service,” said G. Smith, associate director of the Northwest Federation
of Community Organizations (NWFCO) a co-convener of the Health Rights Organizing
Project. “It’s
really quite remarkable that the insurance companies want the parts of reform good
for them, the millions of new customers, but they don’t want to be kept honest
by something good for the American public and what the majority of Americans
want: a public insurance option. It’s a matter of simple choice, and the
industry is fighting hard for business as usual.”
“It’s time for Congress to
show which side they are on—the side of people or special interests. The ‘No
We Can’t Coalition’ is not the change people voted for.”
For the record, President
Obama made a similar point:
“If we're going to give all
these new customers to the insurance industry, one of the things that we should
say is, in return, that we change some of our practices and at least have some
competition so that, for example, you can't eliminate people for pre-existing
conditions, you can't cherry-pick just the healthiest folks, and a public option
is one tool by which we can do this.”
Last night’s town hall meeting by President Obama on health care took place the night before a massive day of action of grassroots organizations for health care reform today in Washington on the Capitol grounds. More than 8,000 people are expected for a rally and several thousand will attend various town hall meetings including a Health Equity Town Hall that will address persistent racial disparities in health care that will be attended by Majority Whip James Clyburn and other members of Congress at 1:30pm.
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The Health Rights Organizing
Project (HROP) is a national coalition of community organizations across the
country working to achieve quality health care for all. HROP is co-convened by
the Northwest Federation of Community Organizations (NWFCO) and the Center for
Community Change.
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