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Published by Mass-Care. 
Four Mass-Care activists were arrested at Cigna's offices in Newton on Thursday, as part of a delegation of eleven health care advocates who were asking Cigna to sign a pledge that they will:
1) not use patients' premium dollars to lobby against universal health reform,
2) not to stand in between a doctor and their patient, and
3) not discriminate against enrollees based on pre-existing conditions, age, ethnicity, gender, immigration status, or any other social status.
Instead of meeting with the delegation—which consisted of concerned residents ranging in age from 23 to 80, including a doctor, a teacher, a nursing student, a patient who has not been able to receive needed care from the insurance system, a veteran, a student, and representatives from Mass-Care, Health Care NOW, Northeast Action/Health Care for America Now, and Moveon.org—Cigna instructed police to arrest the group if they attempted to enter the property. Many of the delegation carried Mass-Care posters and wore signs on their backs reading "Cigna Profit$, Patients Suffer."
The arrestees joined eight other cities where acts of civil disobedience targeted insurance companies for their crimes against patients: New York, Washington DC, Palm Beach, Portland, Los Angeles, Reno, and Phoenix. Among the eleven arrested were Mass-Care's Eastern Massachusetts Co-Chair, Dr. Patricia Downs Berger; Mass-Care's Executive Director, Benjamin Day; and Mass-Care activists Walter Ducharme, a veteran and retiree, and Lorie Miller, a nursing student. They will be arraigned in Newton District Court on October 30th.
Read about Cigna's "Worst Practices."
Read the Boston Globe's coverage of the arrests.
Read coverage in the The Daily News Tribune.
Mass-Care will be posting photos and video from the action soon. To express your support for those arrested in Newton, please email info@masscare.org, and Mass-Care will forward comments to everyone who was arrested trying to make health care a right.
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