It’s certainly one way to get a message across.
Angered over what they view as excessive hikes in health insurance rates and the $57 million health insurers have spent to defeat California Proposition 45, members of Consumer Watchdog, the California Nurses Association and supports of Yes on Proposition 45 delivered a truckload of steer manure to health insurance industry executives at the Fairmont Hotel yesterday to greet former Kaiser CEO George Halvorson.
Organizers say their goal is to draw attention to the “BS” of health insurers’ advertising campaigns against Prop 45, which would give California state officials the power to veto insurance rate increases it views as excessive.
“We’re here to return to the health insurance CEOs who have been hiding behind the deceptive $57 million ad campaign against Prop 45 some of the BS they’re inundating voters with in their mailboxes and on TV,” said Consumer Watchdog President Jamie Court. “It was the same railroad robber barons who built and made Nob Hill their home whose corrupt practices and hold over the statehouse were the reason California created the direct democracy of the ballot initiative process.
“Proposition 45’s rate regulation will be decided by the voters next week because the insurance robber barons who now hold sway in Sacramento blocked similar legislation for more than a decade.”
Protesters also dumped manure on the steps of Blue Shield’s offices in San Diego and Los Angeles.
“This steer manure is obviously symbolic of the lies, the deception and the crap they give consumers,” protester Carmen Balber told Fox 5 San Diego. “They’re paying for coverage and getting nothing in return.”
The passage of Proposition 45 is currently leading in voter polls, with 41.6% of those polled by the Hoover Institution at Stanford University saying they plan to vote for the ballot measure.
The “delivery” from protesters was denied.
