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Mad as Hell Tour: "Mad as Hell" doctors make Des Moines stop in national tour Sept. 15
9/14/2009

Contact: Mona Shaw MonaShaw@aol.com Phil Berrigan Catholic Worker House 713 Indiana Avenue, Des Moines, IA 50314 (515) 282-4781 http://www.DesMoinesCatholicWorker.org




Frustrated with the health care ‘options’ coming out of Washington, D.C., six “Mad as Hell” Oregon physicians began, on September 8, 2009, an unprecedented road trip across America to advocate for a single-payer health care system. A big part of their plan is to take the entire country with them.

The Doctors will stop in Des Moines, Iowa, on September 15, 2009, and will appear at a town hall meeting at the First Christian Church, 2500 University Avenue, at 7:30 p.m.

Called a “Care-A-Van,” these road-tripping Oregon physicians left Oregon in a used motor home from Portland, Oregon on September 8 and are inviting doctors and ordinary citizens from other states to join them on their twenty-city tour across the country. Their journey will culminate in a Washington, D.C.-based event on September 30, 2009, scheduled to take place on the steps of Congress. Demonstrating with the doctors will be thousands of other "Mad as Hell" single-payer advocates, all adorned with the movement’s new symbol–the white ribbon. Their demand: Single-Payer Now!

“We’re mad as hell because our health care system is run by people who profit from illness,” says Dr. Paul Hochfeld, lead Mad as Hell Doctor and producer of the documentary Health, Money and Fear. “The rest of the civilized world has test driven single payer, and it works. But elected officials in America won't even allow a discussion.”

“The public option is a trap.”

Hochfeld continues. “It sounds very reasonable, but the problem with it—no matter what the final bill looks like—is that it will continue to allow private medical insurance companies to dictate America’s public health policies. And, that’s just plain wrong.”

“People need to understand what single-payer is--and isn't,” says Dr. Mike Huntington, a radiologist from Corvallis, Oregon and fellow Mad As Hell Doctor. “It isn't Socialism, any more than police and fire are Socialism. And it doesn't require any more money. Simply put, single-payer is a way to take the current premium payments that go to a thousand different private insurance companies, and redirect them into a single, public fund that insures everyone. That’s all it is. But when we do this, lots of wonderful things happen, not the least of which is to save Americans 500 billion dollars a year starting day one. That’s billion – with a ‘b.’ America needs this information. That’s why we're taking the tour.”

Reality Television meets Political Activism

Every move the Mad as Hell Doctors make will be recorded on camera and then edited and uploaded to the Internet that same day. The uploaded segments will appear on social networking web sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, et al, making the Mad As Hell Doctors Tour the first of its kind: an unprecedented hybrid of reality television and political activism.

“We're doing this because we care,” declares Dr. Gene Uphoff, a family physician from Portland, Oregon and fellow Mad As Hell Doctor. “The time to demand that a single-payer plan be put on the table is now.

We may not get another opportunity for real change like this in our lifetime. Washington needs to hear all of us right now.”

Hochfeld agrees: “This isn't a campaign. It’s a movement. Please join us.”

Several national, single-payer advocacy organizations including Physicians for a National Health Program, Health Care Now, Single Payer Action, and even groups like Code Pink, Progressive Democrats of America and Jobs with Justice are supporting the Oregon physicians by setting up Mad as Hell Town Halls across the country in anticipation of their arrival.

All of the Mad As Hell Doctors are available for radio and television appearances by contacting: Please contact: Fiori Cippoletti,fioric@comcast.net, 206.718.2417

For more information log on to http://www.MadAsHellDoctors.com

Sample Coverage of Tour to Date:

KATU-TV, Portland http://www.katu.com/news/57721542.html

Salt Lake City, UT, Radio http://kcpw.org/blog/local-news/2009-09-11/mad-as-hell-docs-head-to-salt-lake-city/

Portland TV Spot (1 minute) http://www.katu.com/news/local/57731652.html?video=YHI&t=a

Corvallis Gazette Times http://www.gazettetimes.com/news/local/article_2c11502a-9c99-11de-b22a-001cc4c03286.html




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