FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - November 8, 1999
Contact: Tim Clarke, Jr., AMSA Director of Public Relations
Daytime Phone: (703) 620-6600, ext. 207

Reston, VA - The following is a statement released today by David Grande, MD, national president of the American Medical Student Association (AMSA), the nation's largest, independent medical student organization:

"As we come to the end of the most prosperous century in human history, there is no clearer objective for us to attain - providing comprehensive, equal, affordable and quality health care for every man, woman and child in the United States. As physicians-in-training, the members of AMSA are committed to working toward this goal so that our future patients will live healthier lives in a healthier world. Our devotion to universal health care has not wavered during our fifty-year history, and we are pleased to join like-minded organizations, such as the American Public Health Association, the American Medical Women's Association and Physicians for a National Health Program, to work toward this achievable and necessary goal.

We believe that health care is a basic right that every human being deserves. For AMSA, universal health care is more than just a movement to improve the lives of our future patients and create a health-care system that works. It is an American imperative to fill this unjustifiable gap in our modern society. Despite the fact that we are the wealthiest nation in the world, one sixth of our population - nearly 45 million Americans - struggle through their daily lives without the assurance of basic health care. National health insurance, based on a single-payer financing system, would provide health care to the uninsured at no extra cost. It is unconscionable that we continue to allow the number if uninsured Americans to grow, even as the solution presents itself. It is our moral obligation to implement a single-payer solution that will save lives, improve the health care of every American, and place this country on a path toward a healthier future.

AMSA will celebrate its 50th anniversary in March 2000. We have dedicated our convention to the theme, "Speak Up, America! Health Care Is Our Right." During this convention, we will examine the issue of universal health care with a series of plenary sessions led by influential past AMSA leaders and experts from within the field of health policy. We will hold a rally on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to declare to our elected officials that the future doctors of America will not stand for the continuation of a failing health-care system. And we will recommit our organization and its members to advancing the cause of universal health care."