Health Care Reform Showdown
The final battle is being waged on health care reform.
March 9, 2010— -- The final push for passage of health care reform has become an all-out assault on health insurance companies. Today, Democrats and liberal protesters in Washington assailed the industry for unfair practices and unreasonable profits, with insurance company groups responding in kind.
In an attempt to duplicate the Tea Party movement's grass-roots activism that has been so successful in generating passion for countering the administration's proposals, a coalition of liberal groups took to the streets of Washington today.
The raging group of protesters marched right up to the Ritz-Carton Hotel in Washington, where an insurance conference was held.
President Obama launched the first salvo yesterday in a fiery speech in Pennsylvania.
Howard Dean, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, also chimed in, telling politicians on both sides of the aisle, "This is a vote about one thing: are you for the insurance companies or are you for the American people?"
Some of the protesters' attacks have been very harsh; a protester held up a sign today accusing at least one insurance company CEO of bribery, money laundering and manslaughter.
Among the marchers was Leslie Boyd, whose son Michael died of colon cancer after he couldn't get insurance or afford a colonoscopy. "I sat with him as he died. And I really thought my heart would stop when his did," she said today. "And it didn't – so now I do this."
The protesters directly echoed the message the president delivered in his speech yesterday, blaming a dogged focus on profits by insurance companies for skyrocketing premiums.
"We are in the money," said Obama at yesterday's rally while channeling the insurance industry. "We are going to keep on making big profits even though a lot of folks are going to be put under hardships."
