Calling all loyal readers in the New York area!
If on this Wednesday afternoon I were to conjure up a (non-sexual) fantasy, I could not have hoped to do better than this:
#Occupy St. Vincent’s
A Teach-in
on the direction of health care in New York and the USA
and a call to restore a hospital at the site of St. Vincent’s
Today, Wednesday, October 26, 2011, 5:30 PM
At the site of the old St. Vincent’s Hospital
7th Avenue at West 12th Street
The Teach-In begins at 5:30 PM at the site of the old St. Vincent’s – 7th Avenue and West 12th Street. We will be joined by marchers from Occupy Wall Street, Healthcare for the 99% and Hands Off St. Vincent’s.
From the Occupy Wall Street calendar for today:
Get Wall Street out of Healthcare!! March Against the Health Insurance Industry
When Wed, October 26, 3pm – 7pm
Where Liberty Square (Zuccotti Park), NYC (map)3:00pm Sign Making in Liberty Plaza
4:00pm Open Speakout – come share your personal struggles with our healthcare system
4:30pm March Against the Health Insurance Industry March Details: 4:30pm – Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield / One Liberty Plaza: located across the street from Zuccotti park, Empire is a subsidiary of WellPoint, the largest publicly-traded health insurance company. CEO Angela Braley’s overall compensation is $13.1 million dollars, enough to cover 1455 New Yorkers.
5:30pm – WellCare / 110 5th Ave: the for-profit company that administers Medicaid and Medicare Advantage programs in New York and other states. Currently being investigated for fraud with estimates that WellCare illegally siphoned $400 million to $600 million from state health insurance programs for the poor. (1)
6pm – St Vincent’s Community Hospital / 12th St & 7th Ave: closed earlier this year due to bankruptcy, St Vincent’s is a casualty of profit-driven insurers and a healthcare system that leaves 50 million Americans uninsured. There are now no hospitals on the westside below 57th st.
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(1) http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/whistle-blower-case-details-allegations-of-massive-fraud-at-wellcare/1105487
Obviously, if I even remotely had my shit together, I would have posted this before 3pm today — or better still a few days ago, so that others might have the opportunity to get their own shit together and possibly attend. In my defense, I was VERY BUSY making my sign, which looks like this (except it’s attached to a Swiffer™ handle):
WE BUILT HOSPITALS iN BAGHDAD + BAGRAM. PUT ONE HERE.
As I wrote the last time I mentioned the jaw-dropping fact that there is no longer a single hospital bed on the West Side of Manhattan from 59th Street to Battery Park:
Just FYI, the World Trade Center is in the lower West side of Manhattan, as are 385,000 residents. Ed Koch is the shill for an astroturf campaign run by the real estate developers who now own the former site of St. Vincents Hospital, on which they plan to build luxury condos. (Koch lives in one of their luxury buildings.) The developers seek to appease the outraged community by putting in a half-assed emergency room with no medical facilities and no hospital beds. The community, however, which includes the Palace’s entire live-in staff, will not be appeased until there is a full-service hospital with a level one trauma center on the lower West side of Manhattan.
(For more of my apoplectic rantings and additional background on the corruption and depravity that has led to this sorry state of affairs, see e.g. here, here, and here).
If any loyal readers might wish to join me today at St. Vincents after 5:30, you can find me under my sign.
