Activists Picket Health Insurers’ Conference
CNN: More than 1,000 activists protested today outside the hotel where a group of health insurance leaders were meeting, ratcheting "up the pressure for health care." The gathering took place "one day after President Obama tore into health insurance companies for recent rate increases. The increasingly heated populist rhetoric, according to many analysts, is part of a strategy to pressure wavering Democrats to back the president's sweeping reform plan." CNN reported that a handful of protesters were arrested (Courson, 3/9).
The Associated Press: Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and others spoke to the crowd. "They planned to march through downtown Washington to a hotel where America's Health Insurance Plans, an association of health insurance companies, is meeting for a conference" (3/9).NPR Shots Blog: "Meanwhile, inside the hotel, those attending the meeting couldn't even hear the demonstrators chanting: "What do we want? Health care. When do we want it? Now." They also couldn't see the wanted posters depicting insurance executives or chalked outlines depicting the bodies of the uninsured on the street" (Rovner, 3/9).
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