Sick of paying more for health care and getting less of it, about 5,000 health care reform supporters swamped downtown Washington, DC, to shut down the health insurance industry lobbyist conference at the Ritz-Carlton, and demand that Congress pass health care reform. The message was clear: listen to the American people, not industry lobbyists.

Sirens cut through the air and a police helicopter hovered over us Wednesday morning as we gathered, thousands strong, at Washington, D.C’s Dupont Circle before our march to the Ritz-Carlton. The atmosphere was colorful, festive, determined.

Colorful in part because of our T-shirts – white, red and blue for USAction; yellow for United Food and Commerical Workers; purple for SEIU; green for AFSCME and a stylish black for our friends over at Center for Community Change.

Festive, because political theater had its day. Billionaires for Wealth Care showed up, cigars in hand. They carried signs that read “CIGNA/Palin 2012,” “If we ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” and “Let them eat advil!”

Determined, because we represent the Americans who are so tired of being sick and tired – sick and tired of having no health care coverage or having coverage that is way too expensive.

Today’s event was organized by Health Care for America Now. And USAction affiliates, an intregal part of the sweeping HCAN coalition, were front and center today – we encountered New Jersey Citizen Action bursting into song as they entered Dupont Circle:

Health care for everyone

All around the USA

All around the USA

All around the USA

Health care for everyone

Gonna get ourselves a health care bill

All around the USA

All around the USA

All around the USA

Health care for everyone

And West Virginia Citizen Action, like New Jersey, was decked out in our USAction T-shirts. They didn’t look as tired as some of the folks who made the drive all the way from Wisconsin and Minnesota – including the three “cow people” who were representing Wisconsin Citizen Action, SEIU Local 1 in Milwaukee and SEIU Local 26 in Minneapolis-St. Paul. (Seriously. Three people were dressed as cows, reminiscent of the “Got health care?” campaign Wisconsin Citizen Action launched during the elections in 2008. We won that election, by the way.)

Also notable today was the diversity of groups represented. We looked up and saw the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force marching next to Code Pink. Alliance for Justice turned out, as did Friends of the Earth. The issue of health care is transcendent – eventually, everyone needs it.

The main event today was the march to the Ritz-Carlton hotel on the outskirts of Georgetown, where we would make a “citizen’s arrest” of insurance industry CEOs. Many high-level executives were gathered at the Ritz for a conference sponsored by AHIP – America’s Health Insurance Plans – which serves as the industry’s front group. (Readers of this blog know that AHIP secretly funneled millions of dollars through the U.S. Chamber of Commerce last fall in an effort to kill health care reform. And every time reform efforts are stymied in Congress, the share values of big insurance stock go up – which demonstrates how threatened insurance companies are by our demands.)

We were led to the Ritz-Carlton by 25 people who survived some of the insurance industry’s worst abuses and joined by more than 50 major labor, organizational and religious leaders. And after gathering in front of the Ritz-Carlton, we heard from a number of union leaders. There was Anna Burger, SEIU International Secretary-Treasurer; Gerald McEntee, president, AFSCME; and Randi Weingarten, president, American Federation of Teachers.

The high point of the demonstration came when USAction President William McNary “deputized” the more than 5,000 people gathered to make their “citizen’s arrests.”

Here’s McNary:

“We are here today at the Ritz-Carlton because the health insurance executives that are gathered across the street are plotting and scheming and colluding to stop health care reform. The health insurance executives gathered across the street wield too much power, make too much money and wield too much influence.

“They get record profits, six and seven figure salaries and golden parachutes while we pay more and more premiums for less and less health care. All across the country in state after state they are applying for even more money from us. As I flew in from Chicago last night, I read this headline in the Chicago Sun-Times: “Individual health-care premiums to soar up to 60%.” This is criminal behavior and we are here to make a citizen’s arrest.

“They sit up high in their skyscrapers and ivory towers and make decisions that affect the people that they can’t see on the ground. Well Congress, you’ve listened to them long enough. It’s time now to listen to us. Give us an up or down vote on health care. Health care should be a right guaranteed to all not just a privilege for some. Give us what you got!”

In his comments, McNary mentioned Melanie Shouse, the health care reform activist frequently mentioned on this blog – she died of breast cancer after her insurance company denied her the treatment her doctors had recommended:

“She got us this close to the finish line. We will cross it for her. We will cross it for her. We will cross it for her. Melanie, because of you and many others, we will no longer be held hostage at the mercy of insurance companies.”

And then, McNary issued an “arrest warrant” and deputized the crowd:

“So we’re here to make a citizen’s arrest of these health care executives because it is a crime to kill and a crime to steal. We are not going to let the insurance companies kill health care reform and steal our joy.

“I have a warrant for their arrest. It reads:

“The People of the United States vs. Mark Bertolini, CEO of AETNA, Angela Braly, CEO of Wellpoint, Inc., David Cordani, CEO of CIGNA, Stephen Hemsley, CEO of UnitedHealth Group, Inc., Michael McCallister, CEO of Humana and Karen Ignagni, CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans.

“To any officer with authority and jurisdiction to execute a warrant for arrest for the offense(s) charged below:

“I, the undersigned, find that there is probable cause to believe that…the above defendants…conducted the following CRIMES:

• Violating contracts by selling insurance and then denying care.
• Laundering money through other front groups-including tens of millions through the ultra right-wing U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
• Perverting our democracy by bribing public officials by spending millions of dollars per day on corporate lobbyists.
• Profiting while 45,000 people die every year because they don’t have insurance.

“You are DIRECTED to arrest the defendants and bring them before a judicial official without unnecessary delay to answer the charges…”

A number of leaders – including USAction Executive Director Jeff Blum – and insurance industry survivors then attempted to “serve” the warrant. Police blocked them from entering the building, but it was too late – with saturation media coverage, the message had been signed, sealed and delivered:

Health care reform is on its way. Health care reform is here to stay.

Today’s event was, in a word, wonderful. So many people came together to make it a success. Just about everyone at USAction worked on it and our team leader was Regional Field Director Brenda Barron. A number of USAction staff served as marshals to keep the crowd safe and others met the many buses that came in from more than a dozen states.

It was a good day.

With reporting from Thomas Miller

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