women's march

Photo courtesy Tom Hilton, Wikimedia Commons

Among the throngs of women and men who marched in the international Women’s March on Saturday, many expressed concerns about the new administration’s healthcare policies.

Some healthcare advocates were there to stump for the beleaguered Affordable Care Act (ACA). Late on Friday, Trump signed an executive order pressing government departments to “change, delay or waive provisions of the law that they deemed overly costly for insurers, drug makers, doctors, patients or states,” according to the New York Times. The move will essentially allow the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to begin unraveling the law before Congress can repeal it.

Elizabeth Collins, MD, a resident at Thomas Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia who drove to Washington with friends, told MedPage Today “Our whole goal is ultimately single-payer healthcare but [the ACA] is about as close as we’ve gotten.”

Another ACA advocate, Kyle Ragins, MD, MBA, an organizer for Doctors for America and a resident at the University of California Los Angeles, said he was pleased at the physician turnout on Saturday.

“I think people appreciated seeing a doctor’s presence … to offer perspective that healthcare providers are on the side of the American people,” Ragins said in a phone interview.

Read more at www.medpagetoday.com