Health care protesters arrested at Newton insurance office

Both the Globe and a Newton paper had stories.

This from the single-payer supporters at MassCare:

Four Mass-Care activists were arrested at Cigna’s offices in Newton yesterday, as part of a delegation of eleven health care advocates who were asking Cigna to sign a pledge that they will: 1) not use patients’ premium dollars to lobby against universal health reform, 2) not to stand in between a doctor and their patient, and 3) not discriminate against enrollees based on pre-existing conditions, age, ethnicity, gender, immigration status, or any other social status. Instead of meeting with the delegation – which consisted of concerned residents ranging in age from 23 to 80, including a doctor, a teacher, a nursing student, a patient who has not been able to receive needed care from the insurance system, a veteran, a student, and representatives from Mass-Care, Health Care NOW, Northeast Action/Health Care for America Now, and Moveon.org – Cigna instructed police to arrest the group if they attempted to enter the property. Many of the delegation carried Mass-Care posters and wore signs on their backs reading “Cigna Profit$, Patients Suffer.”

The arrestees joined eight other cities where acts of civil disobedience targeted insurance companies for their crimes against patients: New York, Washington DC, Palm Beach, Portland, Los Angeles, Reno, and Phoenix. Among the eleven arrested were Mass-Care’s Eastern Massachusetts Co-Chair, Dr. Patricia Downs Berger, Mass-Care’s Executive Director, Benjamin Day, and Mass-Care activists Walter Ducharme, a veteran and retiree, and Lorie Miller, a nursing student. They will be arraigned in Newton District Court on October 30th.