From Matt Hendrickson

My name is Matt Hendrickson, I am an Emergency Physician and the Vice Chair of the Physicians For a National Program, Los Angeles Chapter. Yesterday I was arrested at the Cigna offices in Glendale, California.

After getting last second jitters to join the 12 arrestees in the “Patients Not Profits” event on October 15 at Anthem Blue Cross in downtown Los Angeles, I committed to joining 6 other volunteers for yesterday’s civil disobedience action to protest the harmful practices of private health insurance. Our group included a retired nurse, a Cal Tech Physics doctoral student, an unemployed clerical worker, a computer programmer, a labor organizer and a member of the California Democratic Party Board of Directors.

We participated in three training sessions where we learned about satyagraha (Gandhi’s term for soul force), and “the sword that heals” (Martin Luther King, Jr.): power in society flows not from guns or positions of authority but from the consent and cooperation of the people. That power is unleashed by the combination of refusal to use force to harm one’s opponent and the willingness to make deep personal sacrifices and even suffer for one’s causes.

The action was organized by Mobilization For Healthcare, a one month old organization cobbled together from the financial support of Healthcare-Now! and the civil disobedience expertise of the Center For the Working Poor. Center for the Working Poor is a shoestring nonprofit of young men and women that live communally in an old Victorian home in downtown Los Angeles and take inspiration from the teachings of Reverend James Lawson, the architect of the Civil Rights Sit-In Movement.

Mobilization For Healthcare’s first action was on September 29th, and since then there have been over 20 sit-ins with approximately 100 arrests. Ten other cities had actions today, another ten cities will do nonviolent civil disobedience over the next 6 days. Beyond the next week, Los Angeles is already planning their third action with a new wave of volunteer arrestees to include more physicians and reportedly local politicians.

These actions are unlike any single payer events I have seen. Many of the activists are much younger. There are drums, singers, and street theatre (billionaires for wealthcare). And the message is not muddied by a divided approach between the merits of government financing and a criticism of the status quo. For these events there is one sharp focus, apparently guided by consultation with George Lakoff: private insurance is the real death panel.

With my arrest yesterday, and Dr. Flowers probable arrest today, maybe it is time for our organization to consider a new phase to our advocacy. The image of physicians in white coats being escorted away from insurance offices in handcuffs on a daily basis could bring an unexpected and profound new voice to this reform debate. The voice of physicians like Dr. Hochfeld who are Mad As Hell at how the political process has ignored the heartbreaking reality of our broken healthcare system and refuse to be complicit in the meaningless political solution.

In my case the day was exhilarating. The group of seven entered the Cigna offices lobby and were met by a phalanx of stormtrooper-like officers who blocked our route to the elevators. So we sat in the lobby facing them and with cameras flashing a two hour song and chant filled standoff ensued before we were warned and then briskly handcuffed and carted off to the jail for processing. Four hours later we were released without a bail charge or fine but with a misdemeanor charge for Civilian Arrest Trespassing that will be defended at our court date by volunteer Civil Rights Attorneys.

I will leave to those physicians that are admirably more cautious than I am the job of researching the possible consequences of this misdemeanor if the charges are not dropped, it didn’t matter to me. In my mind I was making the right decision for my patients and for my profession.

It is a personal decision and every physician knows when it’s the right time if ever for them to make that sacrifice. But I believe that a relatively small sacrifice -a few hours, maybe a night in jail- in exchange for broad media exposure to dramatize the profound harm of the private insurance industry on the practice of medicine is an irresistible opportunity.