Guaranteed Healthcare

By Donna Smith

CHICAGO -- From the streets of San Francisco on June 19th to the sidewalks of Washington, DC, on September 22nd and now on to the Magnificent Mile in Chicago on October 23rd, the nurses are making sure they spread the single payer message directly to the for-profit insurance company industry trade group, AHIP (America's Health Insurance Plans), with more than 1,300 member insurance companies. 

In Chicago, like in DC, NNOC nurses joined with local single payer activists and those concerned about healthcare justice in hazmat suits and with caution tape to present a visual image of the dangerous insurance industry dealings that cause suffering and even death by injecting profit motive into the U.S. healthcare system.

Despite cold temperatures and the watchful eyes of several AHIP attendees, Dorothy Ahmad, RN, turned the heat up with a call for the end of the profit-taking middlemen in the healthcare system as James Thindwa from Chicago's Jobs With Justice holds the bullhorn and gets ready to declare the quarantine successful and Chicago safe from more damage done by those who would profit from denying care to sick Americans who trusted their insurance plans would keep them protected.