AMA Press Conference
National Press Club
Washington, D.C.
Samantha L. Rosman, MD
Trustee
American Medical Association
Thank you, Dr. Nielsen. I've just completed my residency at Children's Hospital in Boston and am now continuing my training as a fellow in pediatric Emergency Medicine at Boston Medical Center.
I'm practicing at ground zero for the uninsured: an inner city emergency room. And I'm here to give voice to those who are living without health insurance and the doctors dedicated to helping them.
Resident physicians are trained mainly in large academic medical centers, the same centers where many uninsured seek their care. But for the uninsured, the experience is different from those who have coverage. Much different. Those with insurance are more likely to get care early. But the uninsured wait. They delay. Their complications mount. They get sicker. Treatment becomes more difficult. And when they do see a doctor, it's often just a stopgap. For instance, they may not make a follow-up visit, or are unable to afford a prescription.
Almost every day, I see children with asthma who, because they weren't treated for a simple cold, end up in the intensive care unit. I see teenagers with sports injuries suffer through days of pain because their parents were afraid they couldn't afford a doctor's visit. And I've seen urinary tract infections left untreated, that will result in scarred kidneys and dialysis later in life.
For many without insurance, easily treatable conditions often become serious and life threatening. Medicine is very good at treating emergencies, but we'd much rather prevent them from occurring.
That's why the AMA has been out front on the debate to reauthorize the Children's Health Insurance Program, CHIP. As a pediatrician, I see its benefits firsthand, everyday. Parents who work hard, but aren't able to afford health insurance, are able to get their children the care they need to stay healthy and strong.
If not renewed, the program will expire at the end of September, and millions of children will lose health care coverage.
Higher federal tobacco taxes can be a key funding source for the millions of children CHIP will protect, including the many who are currently eligible for the program, but not enrolled. A higher tobacco tax will also deter young smokers and potential smokers. Studies show that for every 10 percent increase in the price of cigarettes, youth smoking is reduced by seven percent, and overall consumption by four percent.
That means fewer health problems down the road, less human suffering, and lower health care costs. Already, doctors are doing a lot on their own to treat uninsured patients. For instance, physicians provide more than 20 billion dollars a year in charity care.
I know firsthand the power of what can be accomplished when committed individuals decide to make a difference. In 2004, I was part of a team of medical students who opened a free healthcare center for the uninsured in Upper Manhattan. We soon saw how important this care could be for those without coverage.
That first day, we saw a man who had suffered symptoms of diabetes for years but had been unable to afford to see a doctor. His untreated disease was costing him his eyesight and his kidney function, and he was at high risk for an infection that would cost him his leg. We provided the treatment he needed. And now he's doing better.
That just one patient's story out of hundreds I could tell. I work in Boston, and I attended medical school in Manhattan. Two cities that are home to some of the finest medical care in the world. But just a few blocks from my school in New York, and just a few blocks from the hospitals I work at in Boston, there are many living without health insurance. For them, those few blocks might as well be a thousand miles.
Our nation can do better. We in the AMA want to keep our nation healthy. Last week, I was at the Iowa State Fair, taking part in the AMA Voice for the Uninsured Day, the first of many such events the AMA is organizing in the early primary states as part of this campaign.
The people of Iowa will be the first to cast their votes to determine who will be the next president. And the AMA is there to encourage voters to tell the candidates that the crisis of the uninsured is important to them, and their communities.
At the AMA exhibit, nearly a thousand Iowa fairgoers signed the petition in support of the AMA's proposal for providing health insurance to all Americans, and learned more about how to share their position with presidential candidates.
And I had a chance to talk about our plan with some of them, including Senator Barack Obama and former Senator John Edwards. If our nation, in the next election, makes the commitment to make the uninsured its top priority, the next president and the next Congress will have no choice but to issue concrete proposals and take specific action.
My generation of physicians wants America's voters to go into the voting booths in November 2008 with one question in mind:
Which candidate will take action to ensure our health care system truly works for all of our nation's patients and those who are striving to serve them? Everyone in America, and not just the uninsured, deserves an answer. Because everyone in America deserves medical care.
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