FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - May 6, 1999
Contact: Tim Clarke, Jr., AMSA Director of Public Relations
Daytime Phone: (703) 620-6600, ext. 207

Reston, VA -- Following a report in The Boston Globe on April 28, 1999 (page A1), David Grande, national president of the American Medical Student Association (AMSA), the nation's largest, independent medical student organization, issued the following statement:

"It's unfortunate that organized medicine -- bolstered by the American Medical Association (AMA) -- continues to oppose a single-payer health-care system, despite evidence presented in The Boston Globe (April 28, 1999, page A1). The American Medical Student Association (AMSA) has supported a single-payer system for decades. As students, we enter medical school with a belief that health care is a basic human right. Tragically, the medical education environment combined with the politics of organizations such as the AMA divert our attention from crucial issues such as caring for the uninsured or decreasing the cost of services for our patients.

In a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, two out of three academic physicians, residents and medical students favor a single-payer system to cut costs and expand coverage. So why hasn't a single-payer system evolved? The AMA, which represents only 35% of practicing physicians, and the health insurance lobby, have fought every significant attempt at health-care reform, including the establishment of Medicare. AMSA, in turn, supports a health-care system that works for both patients and physicians. We believe the Massachusetts Medical Society's study correctly identified the solution -- a single-payer system. How long can we ignore rising health-care premiums and the growing number of uninsured Americans when the solution is obvious?"

For more information on AMSA's position for a national single-payer health care system, please visit AMSA's website.