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RESCUE
HEALTH CARE DAY APRIL
1 National
Coalition of Mental Health Professionals and Consumers, Inc. NEWS
NEWS NEWS "We
won't be fooled by the hoax of HMOs anymore" MASSIVE,
NATIONWIDE ANTI-HMO PROTEST SET FOR APRIL 1 NEW
YORK--Fed up with abuse of patients by health management
organizations and managed care, a Long Island, New York psychologist has
organized an unprecedented coast-to-coast day of massive protest April
1, involving marches and rallies across the nation aimed at demanding
that Congress scrap the HMO system of health care in this nation.
Already, more than two dozen cities will be the sites of the
protest meetings and marches. They include New York City, Buffalo,
Albany, Mineola (Long Island), all in New York State; Cincinnati and
Columbus, both in Ohio; Denver, Colo.; Austin, Tex.; Trenton, New
Jersey; Los Angeles, Fresno, San Jose, San Diego and Santa Clarita, all
in California; Seattle, Washington;, Washington, D.C.; Huntington, W.
Va.; Madison Wis.; Charlotte and Raleigh, both in North Carolina;
Pittsburgh, PA and more. Each day, people from additional cities want to
climb aboard and organize.
Behind the demonstration is Karen Shore, Ph.D., who founded
the National Coalition of Mental Health Professionals and Consumers
Inc., Commack, N.Y., and expects thousands of patients, physicians,
nurses, other health care givers and consumers will be recruited at the
different cities to support an end to HMOs. She was joined in the
organizing effort by Ron Bronow, MD, a Los Angeles dermatologist and
president of Physicians Who Care.
She said April 1, was chosen because it is April Fools Day
"and we're going to show that we're not going to be fooled anymore
by the hoax of HMOs. Patients and clinicians have become powerless.
They're dominated by greedy, dishonest and uncaring executives that are
raking in billions of dollars at the cost of our patients' lives and
eroding our professions."
Bronow and Shore said they also hoped physicians and other
health care givers would follow the example of Dr. David Jaffe, a Havre
de Grace dermatologist who launched the RHCD campaign by burning his HMO
contracts outside his office in a widely publicized protest against the
onerous managed care system.
"At many of
the RHCD rallies, there will be demonstrations and marches, punctuated
with patients telling what happened to them or their loved ones under
the managed care system. At
other sites, we will hold strategy sessions aimed at how best to do away
with HMOs. At others, such as Los Angeles, we will hold both strategy
sessions and marches. Our goal is to have enough persons show up at
these meetings to launch a drive to convince Congress that HMOs have
become intolerable. This is
just the beginning of the citizen revolt.” said Shore. In Los Angeles,
Bronow said he is expecting up to 5,000 anti-HMO supporters.
At each of the rallies, there will be a Minute of Silence at Noon
to mark the death of quality care under this system and to pay tribute
to those who have died or been harmed at the hands of their managed care
companies. Shore said
"As the Minute of Silence is observed at Noon in each time zone, a
human wave of compassion and outrage will move across America."
In too many
cases, Shore said, "HMOs act as filters to treatment recommended by
physicians and other health care givers. A physician may prescribe a
certain treatment, but an HMO may consider it too expensive and refuse
to approve it. That decision is based solely on increasing profits for
the HMO not on what's best for the patient."
In criticizing callous decisions by HMOs to withhold
treatment, she said those decrees had resulted in mental patients
committing suicide. "Managed
care refused to provide them with the proper therapy that could have
saved their lives."
Shore and Bronow's campaign has attracted support from more than
300 patients' groups, labor unions, Congressmen, consumers
and individual physicians and psychotherapists from across the
nation. Initial supporters include
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), Reps. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., and
Ted Strickland, D-Ohio, The
Gray Panthers, American Federation of Teachers in Washington, DC, the
Maryland Patient Advocacy Group, Inc. of Baltimore, Md., Maryland State
Medical Society, Union of American Physicians and Dentists - AFL-CIO,
chapters of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, and the
Independent Living Center, representing disabled persons in Southern
California.
In Los Angeles, the huge United Teachers of Los Angeles,
representing 41,000 public school teachers, voted in January to support
the event there. And, in San Jose, Calif., the Santa Clara County Labor
Council, with 110,000 union members, voted to support RHCD and will urge
its members to attend a rally and march in that city.
"This is wonderful proof from the teachers and the unions that we will
show Congress that America has had enough of managed care and
HMOs," said Shore.
"With the teachers joining us we expect to have a massive
turnout for our rally and march in Los Angeles. We have nothing but
praise for the teachers for taking such a bold step and we expect their
leadership will prompt other major groups to become part of this
protest," said Ron Bronow MD, a Los Angeles dermatologist, and
president of Physicians Who Care, the other sponsoring group.
He lashed out at HMOs stating that they are imposing
"extortion on doctors, coercing them to sign contracts where we
must make unethical, unprofessional and inappropriate decisions dealing
with patient care," resulting in the "destruction of the
doctor-patient relationship" and forcing physicians to
"practice like robodocs. Just be a good lemming or be fired."
Bronow and
Shore said the decision by the Maryland State Medical Society to support
RHCD was especially important because it demonstrated that doctors will
show courage in confronting the HMOs whose efforts to increase profits
by delaying or withholding medical treatment against doctors' wishes
have killed and crippled patients across the country. The society's
decision is expected to prompt other state medical associations to join
RHCD. Shore said that RHCD marks the first time that consumer and professional groups have joined together nationwide to try to end the control of the managed care industry. She also said that this RHCD is only the beginning. Each week dozens more groups hear about RHCD and want to band together to bring an end to corporate control over health care. # # # CONTACTS: Elias Castillo, public relations, phone: 650.368.4489, fax: 650.368.7633 e-mail: Eliasac@aol.com Ron Bronow, MD, co-director RHCD, 310-659.5692, e-mail: Bronowrhcd@aol.com Karen Shore, Ph.D., Founder NCMHPC, creator and national coordinator RHCD, 516-997-3390, e-mail: Kshore@aol.com
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