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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=tanstl@hotmail.com href="mailto:tanstl@hotmail.com">David Sladky</A>
</DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, March 24, 2013 5:04 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Strike Debt Abolishes $1.1 Million of Medical
Debt</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>
<H1>Strike Debt Abolishes $1.1 Million of Medical Debt</H1><FONT size=2><A
href="http://www.healthcare-now.org/strike-debt-abolishes-1-1-million-of-medical-debt">http://www.healthcare-now.org/strike-debt-abolishes-1-1-million-of-medical-debt</A><BR></FONT>
<DIV class=date>
<DIV class=dateleft><SPAN class=time>March 22, 2013</SPAN> by <A
title="Posts by Healthcare-NOW!"
href="http://www.healthcare-now.org/author/jtmhcn"
rel=author>Healthcare-NOW!</A> <BR>Filed under <A
title="View all posts in Single-Payer News"
href="http://www.healthcare-now.org/category/single-payer-news"
rel="category tag">Single-Payer News</A> <BR><!-- Start Sociable -->
<DIV class=sociable></DIV>
<P><BR></P></DIV>
<DIV class=dateright></DIV></DIV>By <A
href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/173480/strike-debt-abolishes-11-million-medical-debt?rel=facebook#">Allison
Kilkenny for the Nation</A> – <BR><A
href="http://www.healthcare-now.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/photo8_zps4e97a642.jpg"><IMG
class="alignright size-medium wp-image-6785" alt=photo8_zps4e97a642
src="http://www.healthcare-now.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/photo8_zps4e97a642-300x225.jpg"
width=300 height=225></A>Strike Debt, a group that emerged from the Occupy Wall
Street movement, has planned a week of actions in multiple cities across the
country to mark the abolition of $1.1 million in medical debt belonging to 1,064
people as part of the “Rolling Jubilee” project.<BR>While that may already seem
like a huge number, Strike Debt claims it’s only getting started and ultimately
hopes to abolish around twenty times what they raised, which would be nearly $12
million.<BR>“What we do is buy debt for pennies on the dollar,” Jacques, a
member of Strike Debt, explained to activists gathered at Bryant Park on
Thursday evening. “And instead of collecting on it like the debt collectors, we
basically abolish it. We’re here today because we purchased over one million
dollars of medical debt from over a thousand people in Kentucky and Indiana who
had emergency room debt.” (A full report of the purchased debt can be found at
the Rolling Jubilee’s <A
href="http://rollingjubilee.org/transparency/">transparency site</A>.)<BR>In
order to kick off the “Life or Debt” week of action, protesters planned a
medical bankruptcy tour to the various health insurance companies who Strike
Debt sees as being exploitive of the sick and vulnerable by using insurance
payments to fatten the wallets of the companies’ CEOs instead of using that
money for actual healthcare.<BR>Paused before Aetna’s offices on Park Avenue, an
activist announced to the group that Aetna’s CEO Mark Bertolini received over
$10 million in total compensation last year, which is around 300 times the
average worker’s pay.<BR>A woman named Jamie spoke in front of Aetna’s office
about how she wrote a letter to Bertolini after being denied coverage by the
company due to a chronic work industry.<BR>“I was frightened and heartbroken,”
Jamie said. “I just couldn’t believe it. How could someone in charge of care
turn their back on someone in unrelenting pain?”<BR>Jamie’s letter was returned,
unopened.<BR>At the front of the procession, Strike Debt activists carried a
banner that read “62% of all bankruptcies are due to medical debt.”<BR>Another
activist carried a sign: “Medical bills: death by spreadsheet.”<BR>In front of
the insurance giant CIGNA, a protester recounted the death of 17-year-old
Natalie Sarkisyan, who died after having her liver transplant surgery first
denied and then later delayed by the company.<BR>In 2007, <A
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/08/cigna-employee-flips-off_n_314189.html">Natalie’s
mother addressed a crowd of supporters</A> in front of CIGNA’s Philadelphia
headquarters.<BR>“CIGNA killed my daughter,” Nataline’s mother Hilda told
security. “I want an apology.” Sarkisyan was not able to speak to [CIGNA CEO]
Hanway; a communications specialist talked to her instead. After their
conversation, employees heckled the group from a balcony; one man gave them the
finger. CIGNA called the police and had the family and their friends escorted
from the building.<BR>A CIGNA executive later apologized for the incident in a
letter about a month later.<BR>Over the weekend, Strike Debt activists have
planned a free health fair and march to highlight hospital closings. The march
will feature sites like the closed St. Vincent’s community hospital, which will
enjoy a “second life” as the site of luxury condos priced between $1.4 and $8.2
million. The tour will be followed by free legal advice and health care at
Judson Church. On Saturday, practitioners will also be on call to answer medical
questions at Strike Debt’s website.<BR>“These debts are literally killing
patients, students, providers and communities,” the group states at its website.
“They deepen the already entrenched inequalities that divide races, classes, and
genders. Our healthcare system doesn’t make us well; it prolongs our illnesses
in the name of profit.”<BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>