Humana-Miami Rally from Doral, Florida

Footage from the Humana Miami headquarters rally on Wednesday 11th, 2009. Here some of the sights and sounds from Doral, Florida.

My Medical Me$h Problem

My name is Jorge R. Serrano. I'm a photojournalist/filmmaker. While working as a photojournalist for WTVJ, the local NBC affiliate, I injured myself. That injury was later diagnosed as a small inguinal hernia. I continued to work for nearly a year. After covering tropical storm Noel from Bahamas I developed the aspiration to become a foreign / war correspondent. Besides, my progressive political views were not appreciated at WTVJ so an alternative to staying there seemed necessary anyway. To that end I was advised to have my hernia repaired if I would not want to have the hernia burst while at a third world country or war-zone. So I eventually went to a surgeon and was sold into having the hernia repaired with a plastic mesh patch. This "bullet proof" patch has become a genuine nightmare. I had all sorts of other plans designed with the pre-requisite that I would be in excellent physical condition. I planned to film adventures in the wild, explore new places and bring untold stories to the general public. I used to practice martial arts and run in thriathlons. All those dreams have been battered.

I and innumerable other people are suffering horrendous complications including death from these mesh patches. These surgeries have become very popular mostly for economic reasons. In my case chronic pain is only the tip of the iceberg. From organs being strangulated by scar tissue generated by the plastic mesh, to the leaching of dangerous chemicals causing all kinds of health havoc. I should not have been a test subject for this dangerous and unproven device.

At great expense we tried to maintain the HMO's coverage after the surgery while I kept going back to the surgeon with complications. He kept giving me the same response: Basically more pain killers and walk it off. When my wife changed jobs we lost our coverage. By the way, NBC, in the almost four years I worked there never gave me health coverage. After months of pain and other complication, we used all of our savings to enroll on the "Preferred Medical Plan" who promptly denied even referring me to a specialist using the now common excuse of pre-existing condition.

I now find myself lost in the wilderness of this immoral health care system; in desperate need of health care with no way to get it. Meantime the pain and long term consequences of my lack of care keep piling up. Since I can't carry a heavy camera for hours like I used to, I can't earn the money for paying the ton of medical bills I incurred while "covered". Without insurance the medical care I need is completely out of my range. It's no surprise that: "Medical bills, plus related problems such as lost wages for the ill and their caregivers, contributed to 62% of all bankruptcies filed in 2007....Medical insurance isn't much help, either. About 78% of bankruptcy filers burdened by healthcare expenses were insured, according to the survey, to be published in the August issue of the American Journal of Medicine."

I like provably most other Americans trusted the system would protect my interest. I was wrong to count on a system contaminated with the profit motive. The for-profit medical industrial complex has become a tool to get around the Hypocritical oath to not put profit or advancement above duties to patients. For profit medicine encourages profit-producing drugs, surgeries, tests and treatments at the expense of the patients' interests. It created a monster industry designed to ration medical treatment to fatten their profits. The United States stands alone among industrialized nations in not providing health care for all it's citizens. There are currently 46 million Americans without health care and we rank # 37th in health care even though we spend more than any other country. How does that make any sense? How can we abide by that? Is paying so much for so little worth it just to keep other human beings from the care they need? Is that worth it?

The health care debate should be strictly framed in a moral context. Does greed have a place in medicine? That's the question I ask myself in my film: Me$h The Movie. The Medical Industrial Complex's greed pushed me into my current me$sh. Now, how do I get out?

Prolene Hernia System

This is a video of the operation from hell I wish I had never had done. That plastic inside of you does a lot of damage. Scar tissue, dangerous chemicals leaching, chronic pain and on and on. Now none of these HMO bastards will give me coverage with the pre-existing excuse. So in the richest country in the world I find myself playing doctor or withering and dying. I'll let you know how it goes.

Cigna Protest Rally and Sit-In

This is some of the video from our upcoming independent documentary. This is a sit-In demonstration at the Cigna Corporate Offices at 1571 Sawgrass Corporate Parkway, Sunrise, at 11:00 a.m., Wednesday, October 28, 2009, to demand that Cigna stop its insurance abuse and immediately approve all doctor-requested care for patients with life threatening conditions. Cigna currently denies 1 in 5 doctor requested treatments. One hundred and twenty (120) people on average die every day according to Harvard Study just released because either they are underinsured or have no insurance.

Humana Sit-In West Palm Beach Florida

THIS IS PART OF THE NATIONAL MOBILIZATION FOR HEALTH CARE CAMPAIGN COORDINATED BY HEALTHCARE-NOW and MOBILIZATION FOR HEALTH CARE FOR ALL THURSDAY, OCT. 15th HUMANA CORPORATE OFFICES

This is a brief video upload of the event above described. Five brave souls got arrested for peaceful civil disobedience to demand that HMO's like Humana stop denying coverage to their policyholders with life-threatening illnesses and support real Medicare-for-All healthcare reform. Many others were there to support the same cause. Here are some of the images from the upcoming film Mesh, the Movie (http://meshthemovie.blogspot.com/) . Thanks to all the nice folk that participated and showed how exemplary citizens progressive people are. Special thanks to Leslie Elder, Geraldine Vaccaro, Al Rogers, Rick Ford and Barry Silver. We are planning on reaching out to the local collegiate community to participate. Stay tuned for further updates about this movie and this cause. Mesh, the Movie is about the axis of greed and medicine and the mess we find our nation in.

Bill Nelson Coral Gables Rally for Health Reform

On October 14th MoveOn organized this rally in front of Sen. Bill Nelson's Coral Gables office to demand he support real health care reform. Here are some of the sights and sounds of that afternoon.

On other news, we are working on getting the Humana six to tell us about their experience. We are also trying to participate in the upcoming October 29th Sit-In. Stay tuned.

The irony of AdSence

As you may have noticed there is a AdSence gadget on the side of this blog. We desperately need funds and installing this blog gadget may bring some revenue to help keep us going. We don't chose what business or product gets advertised and in fact it is determined by a computer that monitors the blogs keywords and choses the advertising accordingly. Needles to say because of the many reference, all be it negative, to health care the AdSence programs keeps choosing HMO's ads. For every click on the AdSence banner we get a very small amount of revenue. So, if you feel like Robin Hood, just click on the banner and in that way you will be making the king pay the poor with just one click. Once there either close their window or perhaps take the time to give them a piece of your mind. So, forgive the indecent sight of HMO's advertisement but remember the reason and the irony of making HMO's pay for helping bring their own demise.

Big Insurance: Sick of it. Miami Moveon demonstration.

"Big Insurance: Sick of It" Rally in Miami. Thousands of MoveOn members attended rallies in 38 states across the country for a day of action that sends a clear message: we're sick of Big Insurance, and we want real reform with a strong public health insurance option now! This is Miami's part of that days coordinated event. Thanks to all the folks working for progress in this nation.

Sit-in training

Today we'll go to West Palm Beach for training for Thursday, October 15th protest rally and sit-in at Humana Corporate offices. The good and brave folks of www.mobilizeforhealthcare.org are organizing this necessary civil disobedience event in order to expose the real death panels in America. They have reached my same conclusion: this movement is at the same place the civil rights movement found themselves in the late 50's early 60's. As Mobilize for Health Care states: "Just like the lunch counter sit-ins did for the civil rights movement, we have to make it impossible for the media and our country to ignore how outrageous the status quo of private insurance is for the American people." We are looking forward to meeting and filming them.

The Mesh Nightmare

My name is Jorge Serrano. I'm a photojournalist/filmmaker. I along with many other people have been surgically implanted with plastic mesh. A lot of us mesh patient have suffered in many ways because of this product. From chronic pain to death and disfigurement. I am making a film chronicling the problems and struggles of medical mesh patient. This blog is a tool in the making of this movie.