Occupy Wall Street Doctors: MDs for Social Justice Join Protest In Liberty Square

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http://www.alternet.org/world/152872/occupy_wall_street_doctors%3A_mds_for_social_justice_join_protest_in_liberty_square

October 27, 2011 |

A contingent of about 40 doctors in crisp white coats, carrying signs that read “Bronx doctors for Wall Street Occupation” and “My patients need jobs, education, healthcare for all, not just prescriptions, definitely not bank bailouts,” joined the throngs of activists at the Occupy Wall Street protests at New York’s Times Square two weeks ago.

Members of the umbrella group “Healthcare for the 99 Percent,” they are one of a growing number of OWS constituencies that view their particular cause not as a stand-alone issue, but integrated with other social grievances represented by the movement.

These doctors care for the people who live in the poorest congressional district in the country: the South Bronx’s 16th district. They see large numbers of patients each day who are hungry, who don’t have jobs or stable homes, who can’t afford their prescriptions. Widespread poverty means that Motrin and Lipitor won’t do much to help these New Yorkers; their health problems have much deeper socioeconomic roots.Not surprisingly, the Bronx is the unhealthiest county in the state of New York, according to a recent University of Wisconsin study.Dr. Cameron Page, who completed his residency in the Bronx and now works at Manhattan’s Beth Israel Medical Center, says that what he calls "upstream problems" have to be addressed first, because by the time patients get to the exam room, "it’s too late."