Singing for Health Care Reform

(Full disclosure: The group that organized the protest is one I work with on my job.)

This is something I wish I’d been a part of, and I hope they call me if they need an extra baritone next time. (It’s rare that my vocal training and my politics intersect.) Plus, the guy who got “punk’d” was none other than Bill McInturff, the guy who gave us Harry and Louise. (Not to mention killing health care reform and giving us another decade of pre-existing conditions, recissions, etc.)

Republican pollster Bill McInturff was the keynote speaker on the final day of the America’s Health Insurance Plans’s state issues conference on Friday morning.

But his speech on how the health care reform debate was playing among the public was interrupted before it even began. A group of protesters began aggressively cheering McInturff for the work he has done for AHIP (he’s a hired pollster for the private insurance lobby and, most infamously, was the force behind the ‘Harry and Louise’ ads in 1994)

McInturff, initially thinking that the cheering was legitimate, thanked the “AHIP officials” in the back of the room for giving him mental encouragement for his speech. He was not being paid for his appearance, he noted.

And then, the protesters — dressed in business attire to fit into the crowd — began singing. A relatively lengthy and harmonious rendition of “Tomorrow” from the musical Annie ensued, only with the chorus focused on government-run insurance. “The option, the option, we must have, the option… ” went the rendition, in reference to the public plan.

The lyrics are available after the jump, if you want to sing along.

As protests go, ya gotta give ’em credit for a few things:

informative and entertaining (if you’re going to cause an interruption, at least make it entertaining and short; this one clocked in at just over 2 minutes, and managed to make its point)
protest that was also creative and pretty civil — at least as civil as disrupting a meeting can be (Note that the looks on the faces of most attendees seemed more amused than annoyed)
a message that consisted of more than three or four shouted words
no signs about burying anybody
no one hanged or burned in effigy
no name-calling
no vandalism
no fistfights broke out
no one brought a gun

What’s more they complied with security officers when asked to leave, and went right on singing as they did so. (

One more time!

SINGER #1

No, thank you!
FOR KILLING THE PUBLIC OPTION
AND BLOCKING ANY HOPES OF ITS ADOPTION
THANK YOU, SIR!

SINGER #2
Sure,
BUT WHAT ABOUT COMPETITION?
IT’S AN OLD AMERICAN TRADITION
OR SO I’VE HEARD?

SINGER #1
Meh.

SINGER #3
WHEN OLYMPIA SNOWE
SAID NO,
IT CROAKED
Right?

SINGER #2
NO, THE OPTION’S NOT DEAD

SINGER #3
OR RED!

SINGER #1
EXPLAIN!
Who let these hippies in here?

SINGERS #2 AND #3, and CHORUS MEMBERS
IF WE GET A PUB-
LIC OPTION
WE CAN SNIFF OUT WASTE
JUST LIKE A DACHSUND
COSTS COME DOWN!

SINGER #1
Hey, those “costs” are my profits!

SINGERS #2 AND #3, and CHORUS MEMBERS
THE OPTION
THE OPTION
THE PUBLIC WANTS OPTIONS
WITHOUT IT,
IT’S A GIVEAWAY

SINGER #1
Exactly. To us. Am I in the right room?
THE OPTION
THE OPTION
THE PUBLIC WANTS AN OPTION

SINGERS #2 AND #3, and CHORUS MEMBERS
OR REFORM IS A CORP’RATE GIVE-A-WAY!

SINGER #1
Well, I’ve heard enough.

Gotta take you’r laughs where you can get ’em. Because, let’s face it, the health care reform debate is not always a laugh riot. Because it’s not so funny:

when rape is a pre-existing condition, and makes a woman uninsurable for taking anti-HIV/AIDS medication and seeking counseling after a rape
when a child is denied health insurance for being too small, for too big
being pregnant is a pre-existing condition that makes you uninsurable — even when you’re willing to pay for insurance
being bankrupted by medical bills after an accident, then getting a $208 bill for lab work and learning your insurer will only cover $1.35
to be chronically ill and get dumped by your insurance for being a “dog” or a “trainwreck”
your cardiologist has to pay for a lifesaving stress test because your insurance won’t cover it
you have to divorce your husband to make sure he gets the care he needs without costs destroying your family’s finances
to be dumped by your insurer after discovering you have celiac disease — a very treatable, manageable condition what
you die for want of a dentist
having to chose between your life and your dad’s, because before you can give him your kidney you have to be tested for the same disease he has, and if you’ve inherited it you might never get insurance again
you get shot in the stomach trying to stop a car theft, and get stuck with $90,000 in medical bills only to find out your insurer will only cover 1/9th of your medical costs