Louisville protest calls for single-payer health-care system

By J.D. Williams
Courier-Journal
June 20, 2008

Say government gives insurance companies too much power on care

With the assistance of crutches, Steve Skvari walked with demonstrators gathered on Main Street across from Humana's corporate headquarters.

 An auto accident left the 61-year-old with a compound fracture in one of his knees and reliant on the crutches. While he has health insurance, he said his wife does not.

Skvari joined more than 50 demonstrators who want health insurance to be available for all Americans regardless of economic status or employment.

Skvari said the American people are at fault for letting the government fail to provide health coverage to all citizens and instead give health insurance corporations too much power in deciding who gets health care.

The gathering was part of National Day of Protest Against Health Insurance Corporations, an event sponsored by a collaboration of groups that support a national health insurance program.

The demonstration was timed to coincide with America's Health Insurance Plans' national convention in San Francisco. The group is a "national association representing nearly 1,300 insurance companies," the group's Web site said.

Demonstrations like the one in Louisville were planned in more than a dozen cities, including New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh, according to a press release from Physicians for a National Health Program, one of the group's backing the events.

In Louisville, demonstrators used signs and their voices to express support for a single-payer health-care system.

"It's a desperate need because people are hurting so badly," said Dr. Garrett Adams, the Kentucky coordinator for Physicians for a National Heath Program who was at the demonstration.

Adams said that more than 20,000 Americans die every year "because they can't afford to get to a doctor."

"It's a crying shame," Adams said.

Tom Noland, a spokesman for Humana, said the company also believes that all Americans should have affordable and quality health insurance.

"That appears to be the position taken by protesters," he said.

Humana, however, does not support a single-payer health-care system. Noland said that "Americans should have choices rather than a one-size-fits-all government system."