FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - April 4, 2000
Contact: Tim Clarke, Jr., AMSA Director of Public Relations
Daytime Phone: (703) 620-6600, ext. 207

Reston, VA - David Grande, MD, national president of the American Medical Student Association (AMSA)-the nation's largest, independent medical student organization-in response to criticism from the Heritage Foundation, issued the following statement today:

"Prescription for Trouble," [as printed in The Washington Times] the March 24th editorial by James Frogue of the Heritage Foundation, attacked the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) for recently rallying on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in support of a single-payer health-care system. Mr. Frogue cited long lines, rationed care and frustrated doctors as the inevitable result of such a system. He drew upon statistics, mostly from Britain, to demonstrate the failures of "socialized medicine." What he failed to mention, however, is that the future doctors of America-including AMSA's 30,000 members-do not support socialized medicine.

Tomorrow's doctors want to learn from the Canadian experience and implement a unique, single-payer health-care system that provides comprehensive, affordable and equitable insurance coverage for all. Canada spends approximately half per capita ($2,095) of what the United States spends ($4,090) on health care. And while Canada spends only 11% on administration, the United States diverts 24% of its health-care dollars to profit and administration. Mr. Frogue mentioned that among the 29 countries that belong to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Canada ranks 19th in availability of MRIs. He neglected to mention that among OECD nations, the United States ranks 20th in life expectancy for women, 22nd in life expectancy for men and 23rd in infant mortality. Does Frogue deem the number of MRI machines a better indicator of the quality of our health-care system?

In the 1960s, the American Medical Association distributed a record, "Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine," in an attempt to stop the passage of legislation to create the Medicare program. An excerpt from the transcript demonstrates that some of the same fear tactics used today against a single-payer system were used over 30 years ago to hinder a program that is now widely accepted and loved by most Americans: "…one of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it once was like in America when men were free." Medicare is a single-payer system that works, and none of the AMA's or Heritage's arguments have been close to reality.

Mr. Frogue and the Heritage Foundation can try to muddle the issues all they want, but one thing won't change. The future doctors of America are willing to stand up for patients and fight for a fair and equitable health-care system. Physicians-in-training have daily contact with uninsured patients. We witness first hand the difficulties that working Americans and their families face in obtaining access to care. While not surprising, it is morally reprehensible that Mr. Frogue and the Heritage Foundation would try to undermine our attempts to establish a universal, comprehensive health-care system that provides medical care based on need rather than the ability to pay."

Note: Excerpts of the above text were printed as a letter to the editor in the April 4, 2000 edition of The Washington Times.

Founded in 1950, the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) is an independent organization of nearly 30,000 physicians-in-training from over 150 medical schools across the country. AMSA is committed to improving health care and health care delivery to all people, promoting active improvement in medical education, involving its members in the social, moral and ethical obligations of the profession of medicine, assisting in the improvements and understanding of world health problems, contributing to the welfare of medical students, interns, residents and post-MD/DO trainees, and advancing the profession of medicine.