Patch Adams Takes Healthcare Reform to Congress

Health care professionals, patients and health advocates marched into the Rayburn House Office Building on Tuesday behind Dr. Patch Adams of the Gesundheit! Institute in order to announce a new alliance of organizations, including Amnesty International, that are sponsoring Artists for Guaranteed Health Care (AGHC).

Artists for Guaranteed Health Care is an organization comprised of artists, actors, musicians, documentarians, poets, scholars, patients, health care advocates, film-makers and writers working together to create a universal health care system where health care becomes a fundamental civil and human right in America.

The first project of AGHC is the Faces of the Uninsured and Underinsured poster campaign which will bring the human dimension of health care reform into the halls of Congress. “As Congress members move through this reform process, they often forget that the numbers of uninsured and underinsured in our nation are real people struggling to obtain needed health care,” said Katie Robbins of Healthcare-Now, a national grassroots single payer movement.

The march was followed by a press conference and panel discussion led by Dr. Patch Adams in which members of Congress, health professionals, patients and activists spoke of the reality of suffering and preventable deaths in our nation. It is the magnitude of suffering which caused Dr. Adams and Amnesty International to turn their attention from their international work to focus on health reform in the United States.

Dr. Adams founded the Gesundheit! Institute thirty-nine years ago as a grassroots community-based initiative which has taken a radical approach to healthcare delivery, encouraging dialogue on medical delivery design, and supporting initiatives working toward change. The institute has maintained a strong presence internationally through their global outreach campaign: taking clowns into war, and recently establishing a community center in Iquitos, Peru. As the domestic medical climate worsens however, Dr. Adams has turned his focus on the priority of medical reform in the US and on completing the building of a free clinic in the most medically underserved state, West Virginia.

Amnesty International has joined with Gesundheit! and other reform efforts in stating that every human being has the right to health, including health care, To fulfill this human right to care, Amnesty stated, “there must be the principles of Universality, Equity, and Accountability.”

Participants on the panel discussed their experiences in becoming bankrupt and losing their homes as a result of health problems despite having health insurance. In fact, as our nation’s financial stability continues to weaken, our current model of medical financing is contributing to over half of all foreclosures. In addition, a new study released in June showed that at least 62% of bankruptcies are caused by medical debt and nearly 80% of those going bankrupt had health insurance at the onset of their illness. The staggering costs of care continue to remain unregulated, with administrative costs consuming at least one third (31%) of our healthcare expense, an estimated $400 billion wasted each year.

Health professionals spoke about the poor health outcomes in our nation despite spending two to three times per capita than the other industrialized nations who provide universal health care. Dr. Margaret Flowers of Physicians for a National Health Program, which educates about and advocates for a national single payer health system said, “The current health situation in the United States is a clear infringement of the human right to receive care and the physician’s oath to ‘First do no harm.’ “

Participants included Rep. John Conyers, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, and Senator Bernie Sanders, Sameer Dossani – Amnesty International, Dr. Margaret Flowers – PNHP, Donna Smith – California Nurses Association/NNOC.

Photos by Diane Wittner