MEDIA ADVISORY
Nation's Top Physicians to Endorse National Health Insurance Bill with Representative John Conyers
February 4, 2003
What: Briefing on a new bill that proposes National Health Insurance, a Single-Payer National Health Program, as the only comprehensive solution to America's ailing health system.
Who: Representative John Conyers and the Physicians Working Group on Single-Payer National Health Insurance, an ad hoc collaboration by 18 of the nation's top physicians including Dr. David Himmelstein, Harvard; Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, Quentin Young, PNHP National Coordinator Chicago; Maya Rockeymoore of the Urban League; Dean Baker, Center for Economic Policy and Research;Congressman Dennis J.Kucinich of Ohio; and a representative of the NAACP.
Where: Judiciary Committee Room, Rayburn House Office Building 2226
When: Tuesday, February 4 11:00 AM
Background:
A group of nearly two-dozen nationally prominent physicians including Dr. Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine; Dr. Rodney Hood, the Past President of the National Medical Association, which represents African-American physicians; Dr. Elinor Christiansen, the former President of the American Medical Women's Association; Dr. Merlin DuVal, President Nixon's Assistant Secretary for Health; Drs. Christine Cassel and Gerald Thompson, Past Presidents of the American College of Physicians; Dr. Sindhu Srinivas, President of the American Medical Student Association, and other physician leaders Ñ have teamed to create a National Health Insurance Bill to be introduced by Representative John Conyers.
"18,000 Americans die every year from lack of health insurance," said Dr. Quentin Young, National Coordinator for Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) and a Past President of the American Public Health Association. "And thousands more suffer preventable illnesses. A Single-Payer National Health Program is the only solution."
"We've engaged in a massive and failed experiment in market-based medicine in the U.S.," said Dr. Marcia Angell. "Rhetoric about the benefits of competition and profit-driven health care can no longer hide the reality: Our health system is in shambles. Despite spending twice as much on average on health care per person as Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Canada, Australia, Japan and every other developed country, over 42 million Americans have no health care insurance at all, and tens of millions more are not covered for all their medical needs. The recession we all fear could easily push the number of uninsured to 60 million."
Dr. Angell is the spokesperson for a collaboration by the nation's top physicians who believe that a Single-Payer National Health Program is needed to improve the quality of the U.S. health system.
Several physicians from the Physicians Working Group will appear February 4 to endorse National Health Insurance Ñ essentially, Medicare for all Ñ as the only way to control skyrocketing health costs while restoring choice of physician and the doctor-patient relationship.
"Our health care system is a national disgrace," said Dr. David U. Himmelstein, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard and a founder of Physicians for a National Health Program.
"It denies care to tens of millions who are without coverage, and is bankrupting governments, corporations and hundreds of thousands of families each year. Yet we throw away hundreds of billions annually on useless insurance company paperwork and outrageous corporate profiteering. Only National Health Insurance can cure this ailing system."
"We have the cruel paradox of rationing health care in the midst of plenty," said Dr. Quentin Young.
Tax credits, vouchers and medical savings accounts are failed strategies for reform, according to the Physicians' Working Group. "We don't need any more piecemeal strategies that are, in effect, tactics by the drug and insurance industries to delay real reform," said Dr. Young. "We need a Single-Payer system in which we have 'everybody in, nobody out.'"
The benefits of National Health Insurance will be outlined from an economic, political and public health perspective at the February 4 press conference.
Working Group Members*
| Marcia Angell,
MD Spokesperson Past Editor New England Journal of Medicine |
Elinor Christiansen,
MD President Elect American Medical Women's Association |
Sindhu Srinivas,
MD National President American Medical Student Assn. |
| Quentin Young,
MD Convener National Coordinator PNHP Past President American Public Health Association |
Gary Dennis,
MD Past President National Medical Association |
Gerald Thomson,
MD Past President American College of Physicians |
| Joel Alpert,
MD Past President American Academy of Pediatrics |
Merlin Du Val,
MD Former Assistant Secretary for Health under Nixon Department of Health, Education and Welfare |
Walter Tsou, MD,
MPH |
| Ron Anderson,
MD President and CEO Parkland Health & Hospital System |
David Himmelstein,
MD Co-Founder Physicians for a National Health Program |
Steffie Woolhandler, MD,
MPH Co-Director Center for National Health Program Studies The Cambridge Hospital/Harvard Medical School |
| Peter Beilenson, MD,
MPH Commissioner Department of Health, Baltimore |
Rodney Hood,
MD |
|
| Olveen Carrasquillo, MD,
MPH Advisory Committee Member National Hispanic Medical Assn. |
Edith Rasell, MD, PhD Director Economic Analysis and Research Network Economic Policy Institute |
|
| Christine Cassell,
MD Past President American College of Physicians |
Helen Rodriguez-Trias,
MD Past President American Public Health Association |
*The Working Group members hold a number of distinguished positions, which are not limited to those listed above. The members' positions and affiliations listed here are provided for identification purposes only.
Editor's note: An interview room will be available immediately following the press conference.
Contact:
Kimberly Soenen
PNHP Media Relations
tel:312-782-6006
fax:312-782-6007
mobile:312-946-0938
kimberlysoenen@pnhp.org
www.pnhp.org
