NYU Student Arrested at Health Care Rally

While most students were in class or taking midterms Wednesday morning, Gallatin senior Sarah Secunda was being arrested for protesting for a single-payer health care system.

The sit-in, held at the corporate offices of WellPoint, a private health insurance provider in Lower Manhattan, drew about 80 activists, nine of whom were arrested. The protest was one of about a dozen similar demonstrations nationwide. They were part of the Mobilization for Health Care for All campaign, which uses civil disobedience to push for a single-payer universal health care plan.

Wearing T-shirts with "Patients Not Profits" emblazoned on the front and "Medicare for All" on the back, Secunda and eight other protesters linked arms in front of the WellPoint offices after being denied a meeting with the company's CEO. The group then entered the building's lobby, where six of them, including Secunda, sat chanting, while the three others barricaded one set of revolving doors.

"It was pretty amazing to be in that resplendent lobby," Secunda said. "You've got a Brooks Brothers to the right and people with their cameras and people going to work, and we're just sitting in their lobby."

But after approximately 20 minutes, the police intervened and arrested the protesters. Secunda spent just under 24 hours in custody and was released at 11 a.m. Thursday.

"It's probably one of the more uncomfortable nights I've had, but I'd definitely do it again," Secunda said.

Secunda said she decided to participate in the sit-in after attending a Mobilization for Health Care for All meeting the Sunday before, where she was convinced that civil disobedience is the best means of achieving a single-payer system.

"Nothing is happening with legislation, and our elected officials aren't listening to us," Secunda said. "What it takes to get attention, to get a change … involves putting your body on the line."

Stephen Duncombe, an associate professor at Gallatin, said civil disobedience can be a beneficial mechanism for protesting.

"It's hard to cover a long-term issue like the health care process," Duncombe said. "There is no sexy lead, and civil disobedience and arrests draw attention to it."

According to Laurie Wen, a spokeswoman for the health care campaign, the sit-in specifically targeted WellPoint because Liz Fowler, WellPoint's former senior vice president of public policy, served as the lead author of Sen. Max Baucus' health care reform bill, which advocates a multi-payer system.

Representatives from WellPoint were not available for comment.