Petition Supporting Health Care Delivered To Boehner's Office

On Thursday morning, more than 2,000 physicians and medical students across the county voiced their support for health care reform by signing a petition urging the new leaders of Congress to strengthen and not repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Physicians and medical students hand delivered a petition to the district offices of incoming Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA). The petition expressed support for important provisions of the health care reform law including barring discrimination against children with pre-existing conditions, extending coverage to young people who stay on their parents insurance until age 26, and banning insurance companies from dropping people from coverage when they get sick. Additionally, new provisions that took effect January 1st, 2011, will help seniors struggling with prescription drug costs, increase the number of primary care providers, and requires insurers to spend more of their customer’s premiums on the customers themselves.

“As doctors, we see how our broken health care system is failing patients and health care providers. Passing and implementing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is an important first step to fixing a broken system, and we must continue to move forward” said Dr. Vivek Murthy, President of Doctors for America. “Repealing the health care reform law will only move our health care system backward – and millions of patients simply can’t afford that. We urge the new Congress to work with patients and providers to improve the health reform law so we can build a health care system that works for everyone.”

Dr. Don Nguyen, a doctor at Children's Medical Center in Dayton, as on hand to deliver the petition to Speaker Boehner's office. "Uninsured Ohioans will finally have access to quality and affordable health care because of the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act," said Nguyen.

Doctors for America is a grassroots group of over 15,000 physicians with a presence in all fifty states fighting for a system in which every American has equal access to quality health care. We envision a fair, effective and affordable health care system — one fundamentally transformed and guided by the core values of doctors and their patients