Stop Excessive Profits for Insurance Companies

There's still plenty of fight left in the 70 or so advocates for health care that rallied in downtown Albany today. Armed with banners, signs and stories citizens from all over New York State gathered at Westminster Presbyterian on Chestnut Street to march south to the headquarters of the New York Health Plan Association on State Street. We chanted slogans like "What do we want? Health care for all!"

Young and old, insured and uninsured, all raised their signs and voices high hoping to be heard by greedy profit takers inside 90 State Street. A NY study recites that the top five for-profit insurance companies (including NY Health Plan) broke records in profits in 2009 while cutting off coverage for their members.

Another study shows that health insurance lobbyists have been shamelessly spreading lies about the 'prior approval' bill that aims to prevent unnecessary insurance rate increases.

More visuals of the gathering check out my FLICKR healthcare page.