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Doctors to Rally for Medicare for All, Demand Rep. Dwight Evans Endorse Single-Payer Legislation

More Than 100 Doctors, Students and Activists Will Gather in Philadelphia on Friday, Nov. 1, to Demand Congressional Action on America’s Health Care Crisis

WHAT: Wearing their scrubs and white coats, more than 100 doctors, medical students and other health care advocates will rally in Philadelphia to demand that Congress pass a single-payer, Medicare for All national health program. Specifically, the group will call on U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans (D-Pa.) to co-sponsor H.R. 1384, the Medicare for All Act of 2019. The livestream will be available here.

Activists note that in his last term, Evans endorsed H.R. 676, the previous House Medicare for All bill, but has refused to endorse single-payer legislation in the current session of Congress. This past election cycle, Evans also accepted campaign contributions from private health insurers such as Cigna, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, UnitedHealth Group and Molina, which would become obsolete under a Medicare for All system. He also accepted contributions from the Federation of American Hospitals and other groups representing for-profit providers, which actively oppose Medicare for All.

Local health care advocates question whether Evans represents the needs and values of Philadelphia, which in 2018 passed a city resolution endorsing Medicare for All.

Dr. Walter Tsou, a Philadelphia physician and board adviser with Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), says the recent closing of Hahnemann Hospital in Philadelphia was a result of today’s profit-based health care system. “To its investors, Hahnemann appears to be more valuable for its location than as a safety-net hospital for the city’s most vulnerable residents,” said Dr. Tsou. “Entrepreneurs have taken over health care, leaving Americans to fend for ourselves. Only single-payer Medicare for All – not incremental measures like a public option – will fix that.”

WHO: More than 100 doctors, medical students and activists
Helen Gym, Philadelphia City Council member
Dr. Adam Gaffney, president, Physicians for a National Health Program
Marilyn Arwood, chair, Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) Philadelphia; organizer, Health Care for All Pennsylvania
Melinda St. Louis, director, Public Citizen’s Medicare for All campaign
Noah Levinson, executive director, Health Care for All Pennsylvania
Dr. Susan Rogers, board member, Physicians for a National Health Program
Jean Ross, R.N., co-president, National Nurses United

WHEN: 4:30 p.m. EDT, Fri., Nov. 1

WHERE: Thomas Paine Plaza, 1401 John F Kennedy Blvd, Philadelphia, Pa. (near the corner of Kennedy and Broad St.)

LIVESTREAM: The rally can be viewed on PNHP’s Facebook page