Doctors to Tell American Medical Association: Support Medicare For All or "Get Out of the Way"

Wearing their scrubs and white coats, hundreds of doctors, nurses, medical students and health care activists will march on the annual meeting of the American Medical Association (AMA), demanding they drop their opposition to improved Medicare for All and withdraw from the anti-single payer lobbying group Partnership for America's Health Care Future.

The demonstration will begin at the headquarters of private insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield (300 E. Randolph St.), where health professionals will speak out against the greed and administrative waste of the insurance industry. Protesters will then march to the AMA annual meeting at the Hyatt Regency (151 E. Wacker).

Even though a majority of physicians support improved Medicare for All, the AMA has for decades opposed any type of single-payer reform. In 2018, the AMA further angered doctors by joining the Partnership for America's Health Care Future, a lobbying group that includes pharmaceutical and health insurance companies and that actively campaigns against both Medicare for All and members of Congress that support single-payer legislation.

"The AMA claims to represent the values of physicians, but their policies put profits ahead of patient care," said Dr. Adam Gaffney, president of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), a group of 23,000 doctors who support single-payer Medicare for All. "It's time for the AMA to leave the Partnership for America's Health Care Future and join the majority of physicians who support improved Medicare for All."

Speakers include:

• Dr. Claudia Fegan, national coordinator, Physicians for a National Health Program
• Dr. Adam Gaffney, president, Physicians for a National Health Program
• Sen. Nina Turner
• Representatives of Students for a National Health Program
• Jennifer Epps-Addison, president, Center for Popular Democracy