Progressive activists picket health industry conference

Barb Zangre, of Pittston, Pa., leads a group of protestors pushing for health care reform. Health Care for America Now organized the rally Tuesday to coincide with an annual conference for health insurance executives in D.C. (Jessica Marcy/KHN)

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 (3/9).

: 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 (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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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.