Time for Action: How the Netroots Can Lead on Healthcare Reform
Will healthcare reform be delivered to the American people? Not if we sit by and don't take action. This panel brings together fierce advocates of healthcare reform. You'll meet Nataline Sarkisyan's mother, who turned her grief into action. A cancer surgeon struggling with a rising tide of insurance company denials. A politician spearheading civil and criminal investigations into insurance industry practices. A trauma nurse/activist. And a policy expert with answers.
Hilda Sarkisyan is the mother of the late Nataline Sarkisyan.
Nataline was the 17-year-old Los Angeles teenager whose death became a national news story and the face of insurance industry indifference when CIGNA denied her a lifesaving liver transplant. Then in a stunning turn around, the insurance giant capitulated belatedly to community demands and a massive netroots protest.
Hilda and her daughter Nataline became the focus of the health care debate when presidential candidate John Edwards repeatedly cited the Sarkisyan tragedy in his stump speech.
GDP is Vice-President for Research and Director of Gyn Oncology at the NY Downtown Hospital, a member of the NY-Presbyterian Healthcare System, and an Associate Professor at Weill-Cornell Medical College. He is an internationally recognized leader in women's cancer care and an award winning educator. He has introduced many medical innovations that are now the standard of care through hundreds of articles and presentations plus 5 books. He is the ACOG NYS representative to the CMS Carrier Advisory Committee and was a participant in the 2007 Yearly Kos Convention.
Geri Jenkins is a Registered Nurse and a Member of the Council of Presidents of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, America’s largest nurses’ union and the fastest-growing union of any kind. Over her 30-year career as a surgical ICU and trauma RN with the University of California San Diego Medical Center, Geri Jenkins has seen and facilitated numerous changes for Southern California nurses. Jenkins was elected to the Board of Directors in 1999 and served three two-year terms until 2005. After a brief one-term hiatus, she returned to be elected to CNA/NNOC’s first Council of Presidents in 2007.
Eve Gittelson is the blogger known as nyceve. She writes about the broken American healthcare system for a variety of online publications including Guaranteed Healthcare, The Huffington Post and Daily Kos.
Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo became the highest-ranking Latino to win citywide office in more than 100 years when he was elected in 2001. Running unopposed, he was re-elected in 2005 to a second term.
Delgadillo utilizes innovative programs to achieve his vision of a better and safer Los Angeles. His top priorities include fighting crime, improving quality of life in LA's neighborhoods and strengthening education.
Recently, he launched a law enforcement investigation into unlawful and fraudulent business practices of the health insurance industry, particularly with respect to the improper denial of consumers' claims and post-claims rescission practices.
