NYC Sentinel

Chaos blocked the entrance to the Aetna Health Insurance building on Park Avenue and East 40th Street on Tuesday morning as protesters carried placards demanding “Medicare for all.” With the help of a single snare-drum, charged with anger and determination, a crowd of nearly 30 loudly chanted slogans like “People, not profit” and carrying placards that slammed Aetna as a “death panel.”

Demanding an end to what they deemed private health insurance’s exploitation of ordinary Americans, 16 protesters walked into the Aetna office at 10 a. m., where they asked to speak to management. But the insurance company would not listen to their calls for single-payer healthcare and the group attempted to stage a sit-in, Katie Robbins of Healthcare-Now announced to the crowd.

“We are fed up of the injustices doled out by the insurance companies,” said fellow-member Lacy MacAuley. The group vowed that Sept. 29’s action was only the start a national mobilization to end insurance abuse, fueling the already volatile national healthcare debate.

Soon uniformed police escorted the group out of the building, groups of police sometimes carrying a wriggling protester. The crowd on the sidewalk welcomed them, calling for the arrest of Aetna Chief Executive Officer Ronald A. Williams. Wearing sloganed T-shirts that declared each a “Victim of private health insurance,” police bundled those arrested into vans and took the group to the 7th precinct on the Lower East Side.

“I wish I could have been arrested,” said Nadina LaSpina, a wheelchair user who said police were unsure on how to arrest someone in a chair. “It freaks them out. They have no accessible vans. And we take up a lot of space.” With none of the arrested using wheelchairs, police had one less problem to worry about.

Three vans parked strategically, blocking a clear view of the protest from the other side of the street. Employees complained as they milled around outside the building, some amused, others annoyed. One employee forced her way into the building while others took advantage of an extended smoke break, always keeping a clear distance from the protest action.

Messenger Al Jones did his business with Aetna from the sidewalk, saying “I’m not trying to get in the middle of that, not for the money I make. But I respect them, especially how they stick together.”

As the health care reform debate rallies around the country, a group of protesters uniting groups such as Disabled in Action, Adapt and Healthcare-Now, added their demands through civil disobedience and picketing.

“I remember this from the 60s, when I thought healthcare was a human right,” said supporter Marie Parham.

Although not a member of these groups, the protest is still very important to her.

“It’s very emotional for me. I have two close friends that died this passed year,” Parham said. With another friend in the final stages of liver cancer, she blames inefficient health insurance.

As police vans drove away the arrested 16, the remaining activists planned the afternoon rally that would once again pit them against Aetna.

One demonstrator waved quietly almost whispering, “Bye brave people.”

— Lynsey Chutel