Citizens in West Virginia have had it with health insurance rip-offs.

So, they’re organizing what they call a “Rally for the Corporate Death Penalty — Say Goodbye to Private Health Insurance Corporations.”

The event will take place on Wednesday February 1, 2012 between 7 pm and 9 pm at the Earth Dog Cafe in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.

“It’s time we stop the bleeding and get rid of private health insurance corporations,” said Russell Mokhiber of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. “There are people in our community who are going without care because they can’t afford health insurance. This is not acceptable. We must get rid of private health insurance corporations and create one public health insurance pool. Everybody in, nobody out. Most of the western industrialized nations have this — it’s called a single payer system. They control costs better than we do. And they don’t have 50,000 people dying every year from lack of health insurance the way we do.”

Mokhiber said that the health care reform pushed through by President Obama and the Democrats did little to alleviate the problems in the health care system.

“You can’t keep the private health insurance corporations in the game and deliver health care at a reasonable cost to the American people,” Mokhiber said. “The halls of power in Washington are marinated with insurance industry money. Obama and the Democrats made sure the insurance industry got what it paid for.”

The February 1 event at the Earth Dog Cafe is open to the public.