Hundreds Heckle for Insurance Reform in Downtown Portland

Although MoveOn supports a public option, the rally brought together both single payer and public option advocates, something rarely seen among recent healthcare reform actions.

 

Throughout the demonstration Regence employees could be seen looking down on the protesters as speakers shouted through a megaphone.

 

Tom Leedham with the Teamsters Union and Jobs with Justice called on participants to imagine a world without insurance companies where everyone in the United States had access to healthcare.

 

“What if we had a healthcare system that covered everyone and did it without spending more than we’re currently spending, a system where you could go to any doctor or any hospital, a system that covers all care that’s medically necessary, a system with no co-pays and no deductibles, a system that means you don’t lose your health insurance when you’re laid off or you change jobs, a system with no exclusions for pre-existing conditions, no rescissions and no insurance companies?” Leedham said. “We can have such a system. It’s called single payer, Medicare for all, HR 676, everybody in and nobody out.”

 

Leedham reminded the crowd that, “45,000 Americans will die this year for lack of healthcare, 700,000 will go bankrupt because of medical expenses and millions more are one injury or illness away from disasters in their families.”

 

“That’s the legacy of the for-profit health insurance industry,” Leedham said.

 

Dr. Paul Gorman, an OHSU physician, also addressed the crowd about his experience as a doctor.

 

“It’s unacceptable that we’ve been listening to the insurance industry for decades telling us that they will increase quality and reduce costs,” Gorman said. “Instead we’ve seen quality decline while costs have skyrocketed.

 

“A young woman is 10 times more likely to die in childbirth in the U.S. than in Ireland,” Gorman continued. “A couple deciding where to have their baby can choose 30 countries where it’s safer for the mother and the child than in the United States of America. The situation is that the for-profit insurance industry has failed badly. We don’t need a trigger mechanism. How much worse does it have to get?”

 

Betsy Dillner, a community organizer with Health Care for America Now, which also helped organize the event, related facts from articles appearing in TheLundReport.

 

She told the crowd that health insurers are on pace to earn 25 percent greater profit this year while fewer people have coverage.

 

Dillner also pointed to Mark Ganz, president of Regence, who earned $1.8 million in combined compensation in 2008 from Oregon and Washington. 

 

For more information about health insurance profits click here.

 

For information about executive salaries at insurance companies click here.

 

For general stories about health insurers click here.