California Nurses Association News

L.A. City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, Patient Activists to Unveil New Television Ad Targeting Health Insurers

SAN FRANCISCO, June 18 PRNewswire — On the eve of a national day of protest against health insurance corporations, Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo will join a number of patients outside an insurance industry convention in San Francisco, today, June 18 to unveil a new television advertising campaign targeting the insurers and their denial of care.

The ads will launch Thursday, June 19, as thousands of people pour into the streets of San Francisco outside the insurance convention, and in 19 other cities across the country, to protest the insurers and to advocate for guaranteed healthcare, such as HR 676 and SB 840, the federal and state bills for an improved and expanded "Medicare for All."

WHAT: L.A. City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, Patients Unveil Ad Campaign Targeting Insurers WHEN: Wednesday, June 18, 2:30 pm WHERE: Outside Moscone West, 4th & Howard Streets, San Francisco, California

Delgadillo has won national acclaim for his efforts to rein in insurance industry abuses, including:

— Suing insurer Anthem Blue Cross of California for fraudulent business practices and deceptive advertising in the course of illegally rescinding 6,000 insurance policies

— Suing insurer Health Net for engaging in unlawful and deceptive business practices that lead to denial of care claims.

— Winning passage of a first-of-its-kind local ordinance to crack down on "patient dumping" by hospitals

The ad was produced by the Courage Campaign and funded by the California Nurses Association and Sen. Sheila Kuehl. Titled "Insurance Jive," it features a nurse explaining to a family that their care is being denied by their insurer-and the deadly effect that will have.

This national protest targets the annual convention of America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the insurance industry lobbying group dedicated to blocking healthcare reform; former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) and former Chair of the Democratic National Committee Terry McAuliffe are featured guests of the insurers. Patients and their families victimized by AHIP members will be on hand to tell their stories, and advocate for replacing private, for-profit insurance carriers with the kind of universal, non-profit coverage common to most other industrialized democracies, a system known as guaranteed or single-payer healthcare.

The protests, the largest related to healthcare in many years, will be extensively covered at the new Guaranteed Healthcare Blog, http://www.GuaranteedHealthcare.org/blog , a project of the Leadership Committee on Guaranteed Healthcare.

Malinda Markowitz, RN, a co-President of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, said, "we march for those who can't — for those who have been denied care by the insurance companies, or bankrupted by their practices. The American people are ready for guaranteed healthcare through an improved 'Medicare for All,' and it is time to pass Rep. John Conyers' HR 676 on the federal level and State Senator Sheila Kuehl's SB 840 in California in order to finally end our healthcare crisis."

The Leadership Committee on Guaranteed Healthcare is composed of California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC), Physicians for a National Health Program, Healthcare Now!, and Progressive Democrats of America, working in coalition with the California School Employees Association, the American Medical Students Association, the California Universal Healthcare Organizing Project, the Courage Campaign, United Educators San Francisco, the California Alliance of Retired Americans, American Patients United and Senior Action Network.

SOURCE California Nurses Association

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