To MN UHCAN subscribers:

Written and attached below is a proposed press release for a press
conference for this friday the 20th at Schneider Drug. Tom Sengupta,
pharmacist and owner of Schneider of the independent drug store and i
are proposing this on late notice due to the urgency of this matter.

We feel it is in line with the missions and beliefs of the various
organizations and individuals on this list serve. Previous press
conferences have derived from our meetings and consensus. We had a
forum on Medicare Part D on sunday, but the incessant Q and A (a good
thing), precluded time for action planning. The Gray Panthers had a
list of demands which we have incorporated into the press release.

Please review the press release and let us know if you endorse it, and
any suggestions, or objections for it. We will do our best edit the
first draft and then send it out. Please get the word out to your list
serves, friends, organizations.

Press Advisory

For Immediate Release:
January 17, 2006
For more information:
Joel Albers 612-384-0973
Tom Sengupta 612-379-7232

Minnesota seniors, pharmacists declare, “drug companies got the donut,
we got the hole”.

Minneapolis On Friday, January 20, at 10:30 AM, Schneider Drug Store,
the Gray Panthers, and the Minnesota Universal Health Care Action
Network will hold a press conference to address the “public health
emergency” declared in Minnesota and several other states resulting
from people with disabilities and seniors not receiving their
medications following the recent implementation of Medicare Part D.
This puts at risk the life, safety, and health of the 700 known cases
of Minnesotans not receiving medications. And its mind-numding
complexity for both patients and pharmacists will continue to disrupt
continuity of patient care until policy changes are made.

The Press Conference will be held Friday, January 20, 2006 at 10:30AM
at Schneider Drug Store, 3400 University Ave, (Minneapolis, in Prospect
Park near I 280) 612-379-7232. Testimonies will include a pharmacist,
a senior, a person with disabilities, and health policy analysis.

Congress needs to immediately:

1.Eliminate the donut hole in the Medicare prescription drug plan.

2.Allow Medicare to use its full purchasing power, based on one public
drug formulary, to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies to
secure a fair price for prescriptions.

3. Keep Medicare public. Expand and improve, rather than dismantle and
privatize it.

"By contracting out to a multitude of complex and onerous private
sector insurers, the Medicare Part D system is clearly failing seniors
and people with disabilities, and its enormous administrative burden on
patients and pharmacists drives a wedge between the pharmacist-patient
relationship and continuity of patient care," said Tom SenGupta,,
pharmacist and owner of Schneider Drug. "It’s time to hold our elected
leaders and the corporate health industry accountable.”



Joel Albers
Minnesota Universal Health Care Action Network
612-384-0973
joel@...
www.uhcan-mn.org
Health Care Economics Researcher, Clinical Pharmacist