We've Had Enough of Big Insurance and We're Not Going to Take It Anymore!

Today I participated in a "Big Insurance: Sick of It" rally at Penn Plaza in New York City. The location was chosen because 1 Penn Plaza houses the offices of the second largest health insurance company in the country: UnitedHealthcare. It was one of the 100 rallies held around the country today by people demanding a public health insurance plan option be included in health care reform.

We came to represent the nearly 80 percent of Americans who want to be given that choice.

We came to tell big insurance companies, like UnitedHealthcare, that the $1.4 million the health care industry has spent every day lobbying Congress will not stop real reform because "we the people" have had enough.

We have had enough of the obscenely high insurance company CEO compensation packages that come out of our premium dollars — worth more than $61 million in 2009 for UnitedHealthcare CEO Steven Hemsley.

We have had enough of skyrocketing health insurance premiums, which are expected to rise to nearly $25,000 a year for a family of four with employer-sponsored health insurance by 2016.

We have had enough of health insurance companies making money off denying people the care to which they are entitled. UnitedHealthcare alone saved $18.7 million by retroactively canceling (rescinding) people's policies when they got sick. Wellpoint, the largest health insurance company in the country, saved another $128.9 million that way.

We have had enough of the having to file for bankruptcy because of medical bills even when we have health insurance, like 387,897 of us did in 2007 (801,840 filed for bankruptcy in 2007, times 62.1% of bankruptcies in 2007 that were medical, times 77.9% of those bankruptcies who were people insured at the onset of their illness).

We have had enough of 45,000 of our fellow Americans dying every year because they cannot afford health insurance.

If you have had enough as well, call your Senators and Representatives and tell them not to vote for any health care reform bill that does not include a robust, national public health insurance plan option.

Views expressed on this page are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Campaign for America's Future or Institute for America's Future