Video of Stacie Ritter’s visit to Hanway’s Media home:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmy9hs0x2KE

http://bit.ly/StacieRitterCEOVisit1

MEDIA PA: October 1, 2009: Stacie Ritter went to CIGNA CEO Edward Hanway’s home to try to talk with him about her family moving into his estate’s carriage house, to help them recoup from their financial bankruptcy. High medical expenses caused this bankruptcy after CIGNA denied insurance coverage for Stacie’s now, eleven-year-old twin daughters’ much-needed, ongoing care for brain and developmental damage. This damage is an unfortunate but known direct result of the aggressive cancer treatment for leukemia they received when they were four-years-old.In brief:Mr. Hanway was not at home. No one answered the door when Stacie rang the bell, so she wrote a personal note, wedged it into the front door jamb of Mr. Hanway’s home and then left.

What happened:Dennis Reid, of SEIU, parked the UHAUL truck on the street in front of the main house at 1005 Bent Road, Media, PA, a brick colonial. The truck symbolized that Stacie was ready to move into Mr. Hanway’s carriage house, adjacent to the main house on the estate. When we arrived — all 14 of us– four professional painters were busy working inside the compound’s gates, with tarps, buckets, brushes. The big black iron fence surrounding the estate showed patches of red primer, tarps tucked underneath. The painters did not stop us, nor did we interrupt their work.

An unidentified neighbor of the Hanways on Bent Road tried to stop Stacie and some fellow supporters from entering the sweeping iron-gated-entrance to the compound. We assured him that Stacie Ritter was only there to try to speak with Mr. Hanway, and the rest of us were her witnesses. The neighbor was somewhat belligerent, as he held the freshly painted, unlocked gate closed. We suggested he call the police, then. We reassured him neither Stacie nor anyone else in this action would do any damage to Mr. Hanway’s home. With that, this neighbor walked away sharply, but apparently did not call police.After this confrontation, Stacie and four of her witnesses (Marc Stier (PA Director, HCAN) Kadea Weeks (PhilaPUP staff),Javier Pazos (MoveOn volunteer videographer) and I(MoveOn Philadelphia Council Coordinator) walked up the brick-lined walkway, Stacie knocked on the door and waited for a response, but found no one home. She rang the bell; no response. We turned and all five of us walked back down the brick path. The rest of the eight witnesses remained on the driveway outside the gate, holding signs. No one stepped on Hanway’s lawn.Stacie then wrote a note to Mr. Hanway, walked back to the home’s front door, and wedged the note in the doorjamb. The other eight witnesses were from the AFL-CIO, SEIU, UCFW1776, HCAN, MoveOn and PhilaPUP.Across the street, the neighbor who had tried to stop us watched us the entire time.

After this action ended, I spoke with this neighbor for about ten minutes, thanked him sincerely for being a good neighbor, stating that I wish I had neighbors like him, as so should we all. Two other unidentified neighbors listened to our conversation but did not speak. He softened as I spoke with him, and he wanted to know more about Stacie and her twins. He wanted to know why she decided to visit Mr. Hanway. And, he asked, who were all these other people, the witnesses?I told him only what had been reported in the news about her: CIGNA has denied coverage for her twins needed daily medication for seven years. I said nothing about how the girls’ medication needs are met by a privately negotiated arrangement with a pharmaceutical firm. I did not tell him the Ritters had no choice. Their daughters survived total body irradiation, chemotherapy, open-heart surgery, seizures, and stem cell transplants. This private arrangement gives their daughters the medication they need that CIGNA has denied as unnecessary.

Although seven years’ worth of tests results, constant monitoring by a team of oncologists, endocrinologists at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, volumes of medical records, peer-to-peer reviews were presented as evidence of their needs, CIGNA denied their coverage. The girls survived the leukemia treatments at age four, but now, at age eleven still suffer pituitary and hypothalamus damage, short-term memory loss, bone gaps, and other deficits. As I explained, the neighbor’s eyes widened, his jaw slid forward; he seemed surprised. The neighbor then expressed concern for Stacie’s children, ‘But they’re okay now, right? “ “No,” I said. “Their deficits are long-term and not reversible.” He said he hoped they continue to improve. He said nothing about CIGNA’s decisions about the Ritters’ twins’ care.Off camera, after the action took place and the witnesses began to depart, one witness, Aaron, walked up to a painter who had been behind the carriage house’s iron gated entrance. Aaron asked the painter if he had health insurance. He said he did and was grateful for it., stating, "I’m all for what you’re doing. I support you."

After the action in Media was over, Javier and I traveled with Stacie to her home in Manheim, PA, and briefly interviewed her husband, Ben, and her three daughters, Hannah and Madeline (the twins, age 11) and Abby (6). Their son, Ethan (8) declined an interview. We also captured the family outdoors, as the children played on bikes, scooters and skateboards, and caught a glimpse of their handsome, small, neat house and garden. Their home is — on not-so-good nights — downwind from a pig farm.

On Tuesday, October 6, 2009, Stacie Ritter will return to CIGNA headquarters, at 1601 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, to try to speak with Mr. Hanway again. She spoke out at a rally and march on September 22, 2009 at Philadelphia’s City Hall, where some 600 people gathered. The march was from City Hall to CIGNA headquarters during evening rush hour. Stacie and her approximately fifty witnesses are willing to commit civil disobedience to try to reasonably resolve CIGNA’s decision to deny her twin daughters’ medically necessary treatment. Stacie Ritter said about this action tomorrow, “I don’t know if I will be arrested, but something’s got to get through. Is doing this just a media stunt? In some ways, yes. But, shouldn’t CIGNA be called upon to answer for their choices, too? They say they are in the business of caring. Prove it.”

Background:http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/239729 (article about Stacie Ritter after her Congressional testimony)http://ricksmithshow.com/september-19%2C-2009-show (interview w/ Stacie Ritter after her Congressional testimony)http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/8424 (My FDL/TheSeminal report of 9/22/09 Philadelphia rally)http://bit.ly/StacieRitterINSdenial(My MoveOn team’s video of Stacie’s message on 9/22)See all clips from the 9/22/09 rally and march: http://www.youtube.com/user/BleuZ00M and http://www.youtube.com/user/1956dalihttp://bit.ly/StacieRitterFDLBloomberg (My FDL/TheSeminal report of this story update)http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601202&sid=axKxtVPmO1pE(Long piece by Bloomberg News reporter, Heidi Przybyla, published 9/30/09. Ms. Przybyla interviewed Stacie Ritter at the Philadelphia 9/22/09 rally.) http://www.democracynow.org/2009/10/1/mother_speaks_out_on_insurance_giant(Fourteen minute clip of live DN interview on 10/1/09 of Stacie Ritter, by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, conducted on the morning of the Hanway home visit. Many web sites and blogs have already re-posted this segment.)