The influential health care interest group cut ties with the coalition after months of pressure from grassroots health care activists
Contact: Connie Huynh, 213.304.7267
[email protected]
CHICAGO – In response to the American Medical Association’s (AMA) acknowledgement that it has left the Partnership for America’s Healthcare Future, a corporate lobbying group fighting universal single-payer health care, People’s Action issues the following statement:
The AMA’s exit from the Partnership is a clear demonstration of people power contesting corporate power and winning. The AMA has reversed its support for the Partnership because everyday people stood up, got organized, and demanded that physicians put their sworn duty to patient health before corporate profits.
“The AMA has made the right – if overdue – call by leaving the Partnership For America’s Health Care Future, and to stop giving their credibility to this effort by big corporations to put profits before people’s health,” said George Goehl, the director of People’s Action.
In April, one thousand People’s Action members took over the lobby of the Partnership’s office in Washington, D.C., demanding they “cease and desist” efforts to undermine support for Medicare For All, and instead use their resources to fight for a health care system that serves all people.
In June, People’s Action activists from the Jane Addams Senior Caucus, Physicians for a National Health Care Program,Students for a National Health Program (SNaHP), and others occupied the main floor of AMA’s national convention in Chicago to demand they end their opposition to Medicare For All.
“In our group of protesters there were doctors and medical students, but most were seniors like me – some in wheelchairs – each of whom has their own painful experiences to share of being denied care when we needed it most,” said Reggie Griffin, a 78-year-old member of the Jane Addams Senior Caucus, who participated in the AMA “die-in.”
“Now more than ever we have realized the power we have when we come together and advocate for our patients,” said Alankrita Siddula, SNaHP member and student at Rush Medical College. “This is a step in the right direction for the AMA but there is still a long way to go. We will continue to work towards the ultimate goal of having the AMA on board with Medicare for All and eventually switching our system to a single-payer model.”
People’s Action and its member organizations will continue the fight for health care justice in the streets, corporate meetings, and the halls of Congress until health care is guaranteed to all people in this country as a human right through an Improved Medicare for All system.
“We’re glad the AMA has finally seen the light, and has stepped aside in the best interest of everyone – patients and physicians,” said Connie Huynh, who helped organize the protests in Washington and Chicago, and leads People’s Action’s Health Care for All campaign. “But we won’t rest until corporate interests get out of health care and everyone has the health care we all need and deserve: Medicare For All.”
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For more information about People’s Action, the fight for Medicare for All or to reach anyone mentioned in this press release, contact Connie Huynh at [email protected]
People’s Action is a progressive, multiracial, working-class coalition of more than a million people and 48 member organizations in 30 states. We fight for racial, gender, climate and economic justice.