Hundreds of medical students in at least 16 states plan to demonstrate into the evening today in favor of extending Medicare coverage to all citizens, which would amount to a single-payer healthcare program for the United States.
The schedule of events include marches and teach-ins as well as candlelight vigils in honor of the estimated 35,000 American adults whose deaths last year, organizers said, could have been prevented had those individuals possessed health insurance coverage.
Today's activism springs from the Students for a National Health Program (SNaHP), an arm of Physicians for a National Health Program. SNaHP has roughly 800 members in chapters at 43 US medical schools, according to Scott Goldberg, a member of the Physicians for a National Health Program board of directors and a fourth-year student at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine in Illinois. Most of the chapters are participating in what's called the Medicare-for-All National Day of Action, which also goes by the Twitter hashtag #TenOne.
Joining SNaHP in the Medicare-for-All National Day of Action are:
the American Medical Student Association;
the Latino Medical Student Association;
Universities Allied for Essential Medicine;
Pre-Health Dreamers, consisting of undocumented students preparing for healthcare careers; and
#WhiteCoats4Black Lives, a group of medical students who conducted a nationwide "die-in" last year to protest police brutality against blacks.
The Medicare-for-All National Day of Action is timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Medicare, but not today's debut of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th Revision, diagnostic codes, which has healthcare in a dither. "It happens to be a coincidence," "Goldberg told Medscape Medical News.
Bryant Shuey, a second-year student at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, who is helping organize #TenOne activities there, said his nascent clinical experiences have strengthened his belief in a single-payer system. Working in a family medicine practice, Shuey encountered a 65-year-old man who had just become eligible for Medicare. Up until that point, the patient had put off seeing a physician for years on account of the expense.
"He had a mass in his abdomen, weight loss, and changes in his stools," Shuey told Medscape Medical News. "We ran tests and found out that he had colon cancer. It had pretty much progressed past the point of therapy."
Blue State Tilt?
Tonight in Chicago, students from five local medical schools will hold a "funeral march" to commemorate uninsured patients who died of preventable causes as well as the hoped-for death of the private health insurance industry, "which places profits above patients," Goldberg said. The march will end in front of an office for health insurer Humana, where participants will hear speeches and light candles.
"It's an appropriate place to have it," Goldberg said.
Press materials from SNaHP state that at least 36 chapters in 16 states intend to conduct marches and rallies today. Most of the 16 states are in the Northeast, North Central, and West Coast sections of the country, and all but two were blue states in the 2012 presidential election. By and large, #Ten10 is skipping over the South, the Great Plains, and the West, which are Republican bastions.
Goldberg said the national map for the National Day of Action reflects not so much political differences as it does the growth of SNaHP.
"We've only been around for 4 years," he said. "Definitely there are chapters in Blue states that are maybe easier to recruit [in], but over the last 6 months to a year, a lot of growth has come from red states." He pointed to a chapter that has just formed at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri.
"It's not a red state or blue state issue. Medical students are entering into this profession because they see it as a service profession and they want to do what's best for their patients.
"Clearly single-payer is the most evidence-based and comprehensive way to provide for all patients, regardless of their income or their race or ethnicity."
Poster Comment:
Vince Golik| Nurse Practitioner (NP) I think they will feel differently when/if they finish their schooling and start practice. It's great to think of "high and lofty ideals" when a) you don't have to pay back student loans yet, and b) when you have no clue about the ridiculous reimbursements you actually do get from Medicare, let alone the hundreds of rules/regulations "hoops" you have to jump through in your practice just to get paid for seeing your Medicare patients, let alone (as in my case) performing outpatient procedures.
scott goldberg| Medical Student @Vince Golik: There were hundreds of residents and physicians at these rallies who do not feel differently, even after finishing their schooling and practicing as physicians. In fact, there are 19,000 physicians in Physicians for a National Health Program who do not feel differently and have been working on this issue for 30 years. And, in 2009, 40 percent of physicians surveyed supported Medicare-for-All. I suspect these "hoops" you have to jump through are not unique to Medicare but exist for private insurance companies as well. Medicare is not perfect, but people over the age of 65 do not die or go bankrupt while covered under Medicare. We wish to improve and expand Medicare to everyone. Part of that improvement will involve standardizing reimbursements and streamlining regulations. Rather than criticize Medicare, why not advocate to expand and improve it to everyone?
Dr. S B| Family Medicine These students are quite naive and clueless about the real problems in health care. Their preferred solution to the problems of health care would lead to less care for the patients and even less autonomy for the physician. VA healthcare for all. They need to let go of the political brainwashing and start talking to actual practicing physicians in the community.
3Like Dr. Alan Reyes| Psychiatry/Mental Health Obamacare is the national health system. Obama and the Democrats could have created single payer instead of the ACA/Obamacare. Instead, Obama created the Obamacare mess. Tax funded govt universal healthcare is the model in Britain and other places. Read the British papers to see how well the system is working. As a preview, the young doctors are threatening to strike and there is an official two tier system with govt taxpayer care and openly superior private care. Currently, US Medicare only provides part A. Part B and the medication supplemental insurance cost extra. So, Medicare as it exists would be no solution. There is no free healthcare. Someone pays.
Keriann Shalvoy| Medical Student @Dr. Alan Reyes These issues began in the UK after the introduction of private insurance, which deteriorated the NHS model. Medicare is not perfect, but it is a public health insurance program that is universally available to those over 65 and which could be made available to everyone regardless of age. Physicians for a National Healthcare Program advocates for expanding and IMPROVING Medicare for all. Clearly healthcare cannot be offered without a financing mechanism, which we believe should be a single payer system. There is no such thing as free healthcare, but there is such a thing as just healthcare.