FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - December 6, 2000
Contact: Tim Clarke, Jr., AMSA Director of Public Relations
Daytime Phone: (703) 620-6600, ext. 207

Reston, VA-The American Medical Student Association (AMSA) is gravely concerned with the health crisis facing nearly 1 million senior citizens about to be dropped by their Medicare HMOs. Seniors face the prospect of navigating a myriad of choices to find new health coverage or return to traditional Medicare and lose prescription drug coverage. In the last three years, Medicare HMOs have dropped nearly 2 million Americans, while remaining beneficiaries are expected to face higher premiums and reduced benefits.

According to Families USA (www.familiesusa.org), a national consumer advocacy organization, these cities-Houston, Albuquerque, Atlanta, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Galveston, Hartford, Minneapolis, Santa Fe, Sarasota, Seattle, and Tucson-are areas that will be hit hardest by the pullouts. In Houston, where six Medicare HMOs will exit at the end of the year, nearly 60,000 beneficiaries will be without an HMO option.

There is another option, according to the medical student organization. "In a universal health system, seniors would not be asked to choose between food and medicine," said Sindhu Srinivas, M.D., AMSA's national president. "Seniors would not be forced into a situation where they must relinquish life-saving benefits. Moving toward a national health insurance system is a critical and necessary step that our nation must take in order to provide all people with equal and comprehensive health coverage." AMSA is the nation's largest, independent medical student organization, with more than 30,000 members nationwide.

"Cost-cutting efforts by HMOs have largely failed," said Josh Rising, AMSA's legislative affairs director. "Since many of the Medicare HMOs are for-profit corporations, they are obligated to protect their bottom line by withdrawing from health-care markets where they can't make money providing services to senior citizens. We have to ask, then, is health care less important than profit-making?"

AMSA (www.amsa.org) has supported universal health care for over thirty years. Medical student activism on this issue has recently centered on supporting ballot initiatives in Massachusetts and Washington, as well as advocating for legislation in the U.S. Congress by Representatives John Tierney (D-MA), Jim McDermott (D-WA) and Senator Paul Wellstone (D-MN). Additionally, medical students around the country recently held candlelight vigils to raise the awareness of the public on the plight of uninsured Americans.

A Medicare HMO lets those eligible for Medicare pay a monthly premium in exchange for free or discounted prescription drugs, doctor visits and hospital stays. They were created in the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 as an attempt to control costs associated with the traditional Medicare program.