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1 Oct, 2009 04:14

Enraged doctors rally for affordable healthcare

Medical professionals from across the US have gathered at the steps of the White House in Washington DC to campaign for a healthcare system that would support all Americans.

As the debate over a healthcare reform bill continues in Washington, there are growing concerns that the health industry is more about profit than people.

Margaret Flowers is a doctor from Maryland who says she is furious about how much decent healthcare costs in America.

“We are really mad because we live in a country where the whole incentive is not really on health, it’s on profit for the private industries,” she explains her reason for coming to the rally.

The group of doctors, who have gathered at Capitol Hill, has traveled to 26 cities across the country in the past three weeks. They are determined to spread their message about how serious the situation has become and demand a solution. They say society’s poorest people are completely neglected when they fall ill.

These people who have their fingers on the pulse of the healthcare system say they have been watching it deteriorate for decades now.

They support a plan that will provide health insurance for all Americans from a single public fund.

“Nothing that’s on the table being seriously considered in Washington right now is going to fix this problem. It’s still going to cost twice as much as the rest of the world. We're still going to have bad outcomes, there’s still going to be barriers to care. It’s criminal, it really is criminal,” believes Dr Paul Hochfeld.

A group of women who call themselves the “Raging Grannies” joined the protestors on the road to take a stand.

“I'm a mother and a grandmother and I’m absolutely outraged that in a country as rich as America all of us aren't covered by our healthcare system,” said Raging Grannie Marie Martini.

For the foreseeable future the protests in Washington DC, and across the country, show no signs of abating.

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