Mad as Hell Doctors Comes to Nashville

A group of doctors from Portland, Oregon will be in Nashville Monday as part of a national tour in Support of a Single Payer health care system. The group is traveling to Washington, D.C., in their "Care-A-Van" with a simple but loud message: We need a single-payer health system in which the government covers everyone and the private insurance industry is cut out. The doctors will make stops in 26 cities to campaign around the issue, and they want to meet with Barack Obama in Washington to make their case for real reform.

Dr. Paul Hochfeld, a Corvallis, Ore., emergency room doctor for 24 years and founder of the group, told a crowd: "[T]his industry has hijacked health care--they are all about profits, and not the public good." The doctors say that the only way people in America will be guaranteed quality health care is through a single-payer system. Dr. Joseph Eusterman, a doctor who deals with injured workers and workers' comp claims, said he's seen people lose their jobs, and then the fear mounts. So he's mad about the lies being told by the fear-mongers and fanatics, whom he dubbed "fearnatics." As Coos Bay, Ore., Doctor Rick Staggenborg said in an interview, "Health care reform is being stymied by the same corporate interests who are the chief contributors to senatorial campaigns. With this clear conflict of interest, you can't expect real reform.”

Prior to the main demonstration at HCA,the “Mad As Hell Doctors” will deliver gift baskets to the staff of Lentz Clinic. The Lentz Public Health Center begins its flu shot program Monday, 9/21. Supporters of Single Payer Health care believe that this is an example of a publicly funded health care program that, although overworked and under-funded, provides us with valuable health care services. Just down the road from Lentz Clinic is the other end of our health care network – a for-profit hospital chain that has the distinction of committing the biggest case of health care fraud in the history of the planet. Under the leadership of Rick Scott- now an outspoken opponent of Single Payer and leader in opposing reform – Hospital Corporation of America stole billions of dollars from Medicare. The corporation paid $1.7 billion in fines. Ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, Republican Senator from Iowa Chuck Grassley said, “This case is so complicated, and so huge, that no one will ever know exactly how much HCA took. This case is troubling because it shows how one company, with unbridled greed, systematically defrauded the government's health care programs.”

For more information contact Warren Duzak, 615-292-5608, 615-428-5433. www.MadAsHellDoctors.com