CNA/NNOC PRESS RELEASE - Family of Nataline Sarkisyan, Victim of CIGNA, to Join Other Patients, California Nurses, Working Families, and Healthcare Activists in Testifying Against AB1X

Media Availability at 8:30 and approximately 11:30

Hearing Comes Day After Sen. Leland Yee and
State Federation of Labor Drop Support for Bill

The family of Nataline Sarkisyan, whose death became a national symbol of the cruelty of insurance corporations after CIGNA delayed a life-saving liver transplant, will join other patients, members of the California Nurses Association, union workers, and healthcare activists in testifying against AB1X, the healthcare deal crafted by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Fabian Nunez, and supported by CIGNA and nearly every other California insurer.

The Sarkisyan family, and other patient victims of the insurance industry, will be available outside the hearing room for an 8:30 a.m. media availability, and immediately after Elizabeth Hill’s testimony, which is expected to conclude at approximately 11:30 a.m., as well as for individual interviews throughout the day, outside Rm. 4203 in the Capitol.

A broad coalition of leading California unions and Sen. Leland Yee yesterday announced their opposition to AB1X, the deeply flawed deal brokered by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez.   Strong critiques of the bill were presented today by leaders of the Teamsters, United Food and Commercial Workers, Communication Workers of America, California School Employees Association, International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Office and Professional Employees, California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, League of Women Voters, and the Gray Panthers. Among others opposing the bill are the Machinists and Engineers and Scientists unions, and California Church IMPACT, legislative arm of the California Council of Churches.

Sen. Yee, whose vote could be critical, cited the “struggle of the working poor” to meet their bills while “the state of California is saying you will have to pay for open-ended healthcare costs. There is no way I am going to support” a bill that could “literally put people out on the street” or force them to choose between paying for their healthcare or their housing costs.