Protesters hit campus, University City

Healthcare issues find the forefront at protests

By: Janhavi Purohit, Josh Kurtz, Aditi Dubey

Posted: 10/31/07

Protesters marched through the streets of University City today with slogans demanding "Guaranteed healthcare, not corporate welfare," and an end to single-payer national healthcare.

Beginning at 34 and Market streets and ending at Chestnut Street in front of Drexel University's Main Building, the Halloween-themed protest called on candidates to support guaranteed healthcare and funding for global HIV/AIDS prevention programs. The march was sponsored by ACT UP Philadelphia, a non-partisan program dedicated to ending the AIDS crisis.

A coalition of groups was involved with the march.

ACT UP Philadelphia was in the forefront, along with ACT UP New York and Asbury, the American Medical Student Association, Health GAP and the Student Global AIDS Campaign and others. Protesters generally consisted of representatives for people living with HIV, students, healthcare providers and underprivileged American citizens.

AMSA's Drexel Chapter President Shazia Mehmood, a pre-med senior majoring in political science said one of the other goals of this protest was to raise awareness of health disparities in

some ethnic communities. The protest started with a small gathering, where the Trick or Treatment theme was used in light of Halloween and the some participants dressed up as zombies for the event. As the evening progressed, the protestors from the D.C and New York chapters of AMSA gathered in the city and walked down to the Main Building, chanting their slogans.

"There is going to be about a hundred medical students here today, along with some folks living with AIDS, to talk to the candidates about how their health care plans need to improve," Dan Murphy, legislative director for AMSA said. "Everyone in the US needs to be fully insured and the democrats have some solutions but we don't think they are detailed enough."

"Right now, they are not really committing enough money and enough details to show that they're party of the people," Murphy said.

The protest centered on getting guaranteed healthcare for all underprivileged citizens, passing legislation for $50 billion in funding over five years to fight global AIDS, constructing HIV prevention policies and, according to a press advisory, ending "racial disparities" in HIV/AIDS and other health conditions. Protesters argued that the Democratic candidates in the current election were neglecting a variety of local issues that have national implications.

Democratic nominee Barack Obama was attacked in the protest, as well as Joe Biden. "Obama has no local healthcare plan, and Biden has no stance at all," said Ali Mahmood, a junior pre-med student.

Much of the protest, however, seemed to be aimed at Senator Hillary Clinton and her stance, or lack thereof, regarding the issues at stake.

"The main issue is that Senator Clinton has no domestic AIDS plan. She needs to put out that plan to show that she's capable of being president," said Kaytee Riek, a Health GAP and ACT UP member.

Riek also voiced some specific concerns which protesters felt were neglected. "As she said in earlier debates, the leading cause of death for black women is HIV. We expect her to have a plan to fix that," Riek finished.

Supporters for Hillary Clinton fought back with full force, claiming that Clinton was not negligent of local issues. "She fought hard for that [healthcare]. Do they even know that? I don't understand why they'd make that point at all. They have a right to protest, but it just doesn't make any sense," one Clinton supporter said.

Drexel students protesting at the event were mostly members of AMSA and were interested in pursuing health care as a career. Mehmood explained that the zombie costumes of the protestors were meant to demonstrate the theme of "the dead don't vote," to bring to light the protestors' belief that healthcare in the United States needs to be overhauled.

"Health care is one of the prime issues in this year's elections. It also affects me as a medical student, my future and my career, and it also affects the lives of everyone around us," Bharat Ranganath, vice president of AMSA and a junior majoring in Biology, said. "So, it's a really important issue and if we can't get people access to health care then as a country, we are obviously doing something wrong."

"This event an outlet to make ourselves heard and actually try to exert some change, we really want to get some specific promises from the candidates," Ranganath said.

Though there were some flare-ups among the crowd, there were no notable incidents and no arrests made during the protest.