It all started in mid-September with a few committed organizers who saw the national conversation on health care reform was blind to the big picture: the core problem in today’s health delivery system is that health decisions are being made for profits. Treatment options are limited by types of coverage individuals carry vs. the treatment they need. Private companies are making the life and death decisions around patient care that should be in the hands of doctors. “Patients Not Profits” became the lead message for a new campaign called the Mobilization for Health Care for All.

A little over a month later, the Mobilization for Health Care for All has taken off through the support of Americans who have experienced the pain of having a medical decision dictated by a bean-counting bureaucrat. Hundreds of patients have gone to private insurance agency offices to demand that all life-saving doctor-recommended treatments be approved. When they are not, a group of brave volunteers engage in civil disobedience, sitting down in the office until forcibly removed.

This tactic garners attention and offers a dramatic action for people who want to get involved. The news media has published dozens of stories in papers across the country and reached millions on TV news viewers. The Mobilization for Health Care for All Facebook page has 2,300 fans, 878 people have volunteered to risk arrest at private health insurance offices, and 78 Americans have been arrested since the beginning of the movement. On 10/15, the mobilization had nine actions across the country. On 10/28, there are 20 actions. All of this growth is due to individuals’ contributions and determination to put the spotlight on greed.

Doctors and nurses have joined the campaign because their hands are tied by private health insurance companies that limit payments for life-saving treatment. Can you imagine what it would feel like to be a doctor and know you could save your patient’s life only to be told by an insurance company that it’s not cost-effective to treat the patient? “This is a moral issue, and I’m outraged at the thought that 45,000 people die every year due to the lack of quality health care,” said Ken Weinberg, MD, who stated he will be risking arrest at a health insurance office in New York City in the coming weeks. “What kind of country are we when we are not providing health care to everyone we can?”

Everyone of us has a family member or friend who is denied the care they need. At the same time that I started my PR firm, my best friend started a graphic design business. When her COBRA ran out, she started shopping for health insurance and couldn’t find any due to her “pre-existing condition,” which is diabetes. Her dreams of self-employment were put on hold. But my friend is lucky, in a way, because she found a job with benefits that covered her. What if she had not found a good job? We all know someone who is out in the cold without health insurance, and the U.S. system slams the door on them.

This campaign will continue until our country puts an end to corporate health insurance, which currently places a higher value on profits than on the health of our nation. Join the campaign here: http://mobilizeforhealthcare.org.

- Sarah Massey

This weekend, Equality Across America will march on Washington, DC, to demand one thing: equal protection under civil law. A coalition of LGBT groups and allies will culminate a weekend of workshops, prayer meetings, and lobbying, with a rally at the U.S. Capitol building. There, we will stand up and say, “All citizens deserve equal rights under civil law. Now is the time.”

While the issue of marriage equality grabs national headlines, often ignored are other inequalities that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens have to face every day. In a thousand little ways, society tells the LGBT person that he or she is not a full citizen. It’s not just policies like “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which tells certain citizens that they cannot both be who they are and also defend their country militarily, but more subtle, less institutionalized policies that undermine the rights of LGBT folk. It’s the doctor who decides that a gay man can’t donate blood. It’s the transgender person killed in DC last month whose gender identity was mislabeled by the press. It’s every time the police aren’t called because the victim is more afraid of the police than of facing the situation alone. It’s the grocery store clerk who is told that her life partner can’t get the store discount (let alone company health insurance), while her best friend’s husband can. Large and small, little incidents add up, and say, “You pay your taxes, you go to church, you donate money to good causes, but you don’t belong here.”

Equality Across America is not just calling for society to accept and include all citizens equally; we are calling for federal legislation. Piecemeal, state-by-state or town-by-town equal protection laws are progress, but they are not enough. It is not acceptable that while some companies are progressive enough to extend domestic partner benefits, those benefits could be taken away at any time. It is not right that people can lose their jobs and their safety because of their sexual orientation. It is not fair that a couple can marry in one state, move to another, and be told that their commitment is no longer valid — or, in the case of California, be told “Oop! Sorry! Your rights are subject to a vote.”

The National Equality March is not calling for “special” rights; we are calling for equal rights. “Equal rights” means everything a straight person takes for granted: being able to live and work free from harassment, having equitable healthcare, being protected from hate crimes, knowing that the system will treat you in the same manner as all other citizens. It’s a matter of fairness.

The time is now. Please join us this weekend for equality across America.

- Janaki Spickard-Keeler

“Patients not profits, Medicare for all. Aetna profits, people die, Medicare for all,” were the chants heard in the lobby of the Midtown office of the Aetna health insurance company on Tuesday morning. Dozens filled the halls to demand that all life-saving procedures requested by doctors for patients be immediately approved by company bureaucrats. One activist held a sign, “Aetna is the real death panel.” Demonstrators with the Mobilization for Health Care now want an end insurance abuse and to win health care for all.

From The New York Time’s City Room blog:

The police said that 17 people were arrested after refusing to leave the lobby of an office building on Park Avenue where the insurance company Aetna has offices. They were charged with criminal trespass. In addition, the police said, three of those arrested were charged with obstructing governmental administration.

Organizers said it was the first step of a national campaign meant to publicize their views and challenge claims made by right-wing radio hosts and Republican officials.

“The myths about government death panels are pure hysteria,” an organizer, Mark Milano, said on Park Avenue. “The real death panels are people who are paid by insurance companies to deny health care to patients.”

Check out this great video about the action and join the campaign on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mobilization-for-Health-Care-for-All/134530106378?ref=mf&v=wall

- Sarah Massey