A group of medical students, who have started a grassroots movement called #ProtectOurPatients, will deliver a petition today in Washington signed by more than 4,000 future healthcare professionals urging Congress not to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Medical students planned to gather this morning at the U.S. Capitol and the Department of Health and Human Services to protest repeal of the ACA, which could add nearly 30 million more people to the ranks of uninsured by 2019.
More and more future providers are putting pressure on Congress to #ProtectOurPatients from losing health coverage. https://t.co/mkvMXS28t5
— #ProtectOurPatients (@ProtectOurPts) December 26, 2016
The students, wearing white lab coats, planned to stand side-by-side with "patients" donning hospital gowns to draw attention to the impact of repeal of the healthcare reform law, according to an announcement emailed to FiercePracticeManagement.
The group posted a petition online, which gathered more than 4,000 signatures from future doctors and health professionals from more than 100 academic institutions. The medical students planned to deliver the petition to Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and staff members in the offices of Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.
As the “future of medicine in America” who feel a “moral imperative to defend our patients,” signers of the petition call on Congress to bar insurance companies from discriminating based on preexisting conditions, continue financial support for insurance coverage that meets the needs of working- and middle-class families and maintain the requirement that people purchase insurance.
Students also plan to hold a Facebook Live event with Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a leading supporter of the ACA, later today. Events are also planned at campuses around the country, including Harvard, the University of California-San Francisco, Yale and Johns Hopkins.
Last week, groups that represent hundreds of thousands of physicians urged the Republican-controlled Congress not to increase the number of uninsured individuals as it moves ahead with ACA repeal plans.
Senate Republicans introduced a resolution last week that would pave the way for dismantling the ACA through budget reconciliation, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he expects the chamber to take action on it this week.