GOVERNMENT & MEDICINE

Coalition focuses on uninsured: 13 groups work together

Layoffs have spurred a jump in the number of Americans without health insurance, renewing calls for congressional action.

By Amy Snow Landa, AMNews staff. Feb. 25, 2002.

Washington -- New figures showing that at least 2.2 million more Americans lost their health insurance last year are lending extra weight to efforts by government officials and private organizations to expand health insurance access.

An array of diverse organizations -- including the AMA -- has announced a partnership aimed at drawing attention to the problems of the uninsured.

Their call for action was issued a day after President Bush began stumping for his health insurance access proposal, announced in his 2003 budget plan, at an event at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Bush said that he wants to "reform health care in America."

The widespread recognition that there is a crisis of the uninsured brought together the coalition of organizations, which do not often agree when it comes to health policy. They range from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Health Insurance Assn. of America to the AFL-CIO and the AARP.

These groups have found common ground on one issue -- that the number of Americans who lack health coverage is unacceptable, said Steven A. Schroeder, MD, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Dr. Schroeder and leaders of the coalition's member organizations held a Feb. 12 news conference in Washington, D.C., not only to unveil their new partnership but to launch a public education campaign called Covering the Uninsured.

The campaign is intended to raise pressure on Congress to do something to expand health coverage to more Americans. Just what that action should be is an area left unaddressed. [...]

Full text of AMNews content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.

Access details

Join the AMA