April 16, 1999

Rescue Health Care Day is a concerted nationwide effort by a large coalition of health professional and consumer advocacy groups to protest managed care practices. At its meeting in Chicago last month, the APA Board of Trustees voted to support the event.

The protests are scheduled for April 1, 2000, "because April 1st is April Fool's Day, and managed care is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American public," according to the organizing group, the National Coalition of Mental Health Professionals and Consumers.

The organization plans teach-ins, an hour of protest, and a minute of silence, all designed to register a "no confidence" vote in the managed care system and discuss alternative methods for delivering and insuring health care. It is hoping that millions of Americans will participate.

The coalition notes that "all across the United States, citizens are finding the managed health care system cumbersome, restrictive, often harmful, and occasionally deadly. . . . Many now believe that because of managed care's basic principles and structure, regulation will not be enough to make it a pro-quality, pro-consumer system, and we need to explore alternatives to managed care."

The group hopes that the protests and dialogues scheduled for Rescue Health Care Day will inspire citizens and lawmakers to pursue patient-centered health delivery system alternatives that can successfully replace managed care.

The coalition's Web address is www.NoManagedCare.org.