News Conference at SiCKO Opening

NEW YORK, NY (06/21/2007)(readMedia)-- Physicians, healthcare advocates, nurses, and patients will hold a press conference on Friday, June 22, at 12:30 pm to welcome the early opening of Michael Moore’s new film SiCKO at the Lincoln Square Theater, 68th Street and Broadway, in Manhattan.

The group represents a new “Private Health Insurance Must Go” Coalition, which is sponsored by Physicians for a National Health Program (PHNP) NY Metro Chapter, Healthcare Now! (New York City), and the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA). It is co-sponsored by several other organizations. Healthcare professionals will be wearing white coats and scrubs.

“We are very excited by the tremendous interest SiCKO has sparked even before it opened,” said Mary O’Brien, MD, member of PNHP-NY Metro’s Executive Committee: “Michael Moore’s film has struck a chord among Americans across the political spectrum who are fed up with the unfair, wasteful and unreliable U.S. healthcare system. We believe the message of the film -- that the health care system in the U.S. is broken and needs to be fixed -- will help build widespread support for single-payer national health insurance.”

“Health care is a right, not a privilege” said Verlia M. Brown, president of the New York State Nurses Association. “It’s time the United States recognized that simple moral precept.”

Two major medical student organizations, the Student National Medical Association and the American Medical Students organization, are co-founders of the “Private Health Insurance Must Go” Coalition. They will join the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), We Be Illin’, an organization of young healthcare advocates, and other groups in passing out flyers to people attending SiCKO throughout the New York metropolitan area.

PNHP, NYSNA and Healthcare Now! all support H.R.676, a bill now before Congress that would establish a single-payer health insurance plan for all Americans. The three groups also support New York Health Plan (A.7354/S.3107), legislation that would create a statewide single-payer insurance system.

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