Free Republic

Health plans in at least four states have announced they're dropping children's coverage just days ahead of new rules created by the healthcare reform law, according to the liberal grassroots group Health Care for America Now (HCAN). The new healthcare law forbids insurers from turning down children with pre-existing conditions starting Thursday, one of several reforms Democrats are eager to highlight this week as they try to build support for the law ahead of the mid-term elections. But news of insurers dropping their plans as a result of the new law has thrown a damper on that strategy and prompted...

In an event most likely coordinated with help from the White House, more than 1,000 protesters supporting Obama's radical health care agenda demonstrated in D.C. on March 9, going so far as to attempt a citizen-arrests of health insurance executives holding a conference at a hotel in Dupont Circle. Covering the story on "Rick's List," CNN's Rick "Down the Middle" Sanchez assured viewers he would "continue to follow this ... and in many ways treat this the same way we treated some of the tea party manifestations. Folks get together, we want to let you know who they are, what...

Union Violence: An African-American is beaten up at a political rally by thugs shouting racial epithets, and after three months his assailants are charged with the moral equivalent of jaywalking. Why wasn't it a hate crime? The beating of Kenneth Gladney by people wearing the purple shirts of the Service Employees International Union outside a Missouri health care town hall meeting three months ago met all the classic definitions of a hate crime. Time was, the beating of a black man outside a protest rally, and the arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators, would be headline news. Gladney was working...

Is this a sign of desperation? Many unions are joining Team Obama with a health care rally and direct action against insurance companies Tuesday. Received in an email today from Take Action Minnesota: Join us (and others across the nation) for Tuesday’s ‘Time to Deliver’ Day of Action.  On Tuesday morning will we go straight to the insurance industry to let them we intend to stand up for reform.   WHAT: Time to Deliver: Insurance Action WHEN: Tuesday, October 20th from 9am to Noon WHERE: Minneapolis United Labor Center*, 312 Central Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55414 (corner of Central Ave. and...

Six demonstrators were arrested Monday morning at UnitedHealth Group's corporate headquarters in Minnetonka after they blocked the doors and refused to leave during a protest over health care reform. About 110 protesters sang and spoke about the need to change the way health care is organized and financed in the United States, and said that insurers such as UnitedHealth are making people sicker because the system doesn't offer proper coverage for many patients. They cited what they said is UnitedHealth's practice of "denying care and claims in order to generate record profits." The demonstration was organized by a group called...

The Man Behind the Curtain and his Drones. ...."In a November 2008 in and interview with Spiegel, Soros made some comments that accurately outlined precisely the course that President Obama's administration would eventually pursue in 2009: "I think we need a large stimulus package which will provide funds for state and local government to maintain their budgets -- because they are not allowed by the constitution to run a deficit. For such a program to be successful, the federal government would need to provide hundreds of billions of dollars. In addition, another infrastructure program is necessary. In total, the cost...

HCAN is the conglomeration of a huge number of hard left socialist organizations that are working night and day to destroy liberty and limited government in this country. They are in the stretch run of their effort to inflict government-run socialized "health care" on America. Here is an example of the emails they're sending out this morning: Dear xxxxxx, In his recent address to Congress, [Alleged] President Obama issued a clarion call for reforms that will guarantee all Americans good, affordable coverage and reaffirmed his support for the Health Care for America Now (HCAN) principles that are essential to achieving his...

"Healthcare Reform" is not to improve the healthcare system. It's about putting insurance companies out of business, forcing us to accept government health coverage, and thus being at the mercy of politicians. Here is a billboard on Interstate 95 in Wilmington, Delaware by "Health Care for America NOW!", a left wing organization on par with ACORN that is funded by Drummond Pike.

I walked by a bunch of Liberals today in San Francsico who work for Healthcare for America Now who were also pushing Gavin Newsom for Governor of CA. The keep parroting the Democratic party line of "big insurance" keeps us all from free healthcare...greedy CEOs... Who funds these people? Has anyone heard of them?

The plan for a series of grass-roots demonstrations Tuesday to promote President Obama's health care agenda calls for tightly scripted events and an "escalation" of efforts against "enemies" of reform. Organizers insist there is no comparison to rowdy summer town hall meetings and recent "tea party" protests that have challenged White House policies. But Health Care for America Now (HCAN), which is backed by a coalition of labor unions and liberal groups including ACORN and MoveOn.org, organized the protests to target insurance companies and drafted the plan, which describes the demonstrations as part of its "insurance enemies project." The document,...

The plan for a series of grass-roots demonstrations Tuesday to promote President Obama's health care agenda calls for tightly scripted events and an "escalation" of efforts against "enemies" of reform. Organizers insist there is no comparison to rowdy summer town hall meetings and recent "tea party" protests that have challenged White House policies. But Health Care for America Now (HCAN), which is backed by a coalition of labor unions and liberal groups including ACORN and MoveOn.org, organized the protests to target insurance companies and drafted the plan, which describes the demonstrations as part of its "insurance enemies project." The document,...

A rising chorus of discontent – more a citizens uprising – shows Middle America’s deep suspicion of President Obama’s health care reform proposal. Average citizens have voiced their disapproval at townhall meetings hosted by Sen. Arlen Specter and HHS Director Kathleen Sebelius, Rep. Lloyd Doggett, Rep. Tim Bishop, and staffers of Sen. Claire McCaskill. In a burst of passion-envy, Chris Matthews asked on Monday night’s Hardball, “Where the Hell are the people who want health care, the poor people out there…the union people? Where are they? I haven’t seen one placard, let alone one protest demonstration, for health care.” In...

Last night, Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) held a private health care “briefing” for members of the Heritage Hunt Golf & Country Club in Gainesville, VA, a higher-end active retirement community. The AARP participated on the “briefing” panel.  This meeting was not open to the general public, but we were there. Connolly is a first term Democrat in a district -- as one staffer at the event described it -- as sixty percent registered Republican. Gauging the level of questioning and the negative reaction of these seniors to the regurgitation of Democrat talking points at the event, these seniors have been...

If Rep. Jan Schakowsky hoped to use Monday night's town hall meeting as a pep rally for the "public option," she failed. It wasn't for lack of trying. Her staff arrived more than three hours before the event, with boxes of literature and a marked-up version of H.R. 3200 for their boss to use as a prop during the meeting. The HCAN crowd arrived soon afterwards with their manufactured signs and rolls of stickers. As the line grew outside the high school, HCAN organizers began handing out signs to sneak into the auditorium, and instructing supporters to block opposing views...

In a word, it was exhilarating. Hot Air has video of HCAN folks being told how to disrupt this particular rally. There were hundreds of folks from HCAN. Some had yellow and others had the more traditional blue signs. There was one woman holding up a yellow sign that kept mumbling something about "getting the numbers" and so she, who was white, was a definite candidate for a plant. There was also an individual in a two piece suit who appeared to be a union organizer. That was an assertion he didn't deny when I repeatedly called him on it.

This will not shock too many people who have followed the antics of counter-demonstrators at Congressional town-hall meetings. It’s the same strategy employed at the Tucson tea-party meeting, without the thrown elbows; maybe they’re just implied. In this video taken just before a town-hall meeting held yesterday by single-payer advocate Rep. Jan Schakowsy (D-IL), a Health Care for America Now (HCAN) organizer instructs his troops on how to disrupt and shout down others so that they “take their cookies and go to bed” (via HA reader Joel P):

A few weeks ago I posted the above photo on Flickr. It was taken at a recent healthcare forum in Philly and I titled it: "A Paid Protester - Note Who Sponsored the Sign". The title ruffled the feathers of a Philly photographer who left a series of comments on my Flickr account trying to disclaim the idea of a paid protester. When I steered him back to common sense with my replies, he lamely tried to paint my Sheepdogs as paid hacks. If I had a dime for every time that false accusation was laid down, I would...

Democrats planning 1,000 health care reform events Posted: August 25th, 2009 10:18 AM ET WASHINGTON (CNN) - A Democratic official says the national party will hold more than 1,000 events over the next two weeks in its latest attempt to pressure Congress to embrace President Obama's call for health care reform. Organizing for America, Obama's campaign operation now housed at the Democratic National Committee, is coordinating the "Health Insurance Reform Now: Let's Get it Done" events that are scheduled to kick off on Wednesday. Health Care for America Now, an umbrella organization of unions and other progressive groups, will be...

Health care reform is under attack.Send a message to Congress now. Tell Congress to support health care reform that includes a public option! Click here. Dear Supporter, It's time for urgent action. Health care reform is under attack, and every single one of us needs to respond right now. Tell Congress that you support health care reform that includes a public option. Last time, they tried to get to Barack Obama by spreading lies about ACORN. Now, they're using the same cowardly strategy and scare tactics to stop health care reform. Worst of all, it's starting to work --...

In another sign of the urgency gripping the pro-health care reform camp, billionaire George Soros has pledged to sink $5 million into the fight, the group getting the money confirmed. Soros — whose operation carefully guards the privacy of such donations — made the pledge to Health Care For America Now, the leading coalition of pro-reform groups, unions and providers, HCAN chief Richard Kirsch confirmed in an email that was forwarded to me. Kirsch was asked by a prominent liberal blogger to comment for a post on Soros’ $5 million pledge, which the blogger had heard about. “Thanks for the...