Both President Obama and Mitt Romney appeared together in New York Thursday night for the annual Al Smith memorial charity dinner. Outside the event, a group of protesters including physicians and medical students rallied to call for a single-payer health insurance program.

Dr. Elizabeth Rosenthal, Physicians for a National Health Program: “We are here because both President Obama and Governor Romney are threat — what they want to do is a threat to Medicare. Now, with Romney, it’s much more of a threat, because he wants to do a voucher program, which will really destroy Medicare as we know it. But President Obama also wants to raise the age of eligibility for Medicare, and we think that’s not right.”

Andy Simmons, Weill Cornell Medical College: “As a medical student, I’m afraid of practicing in the current system. It’s going to prevent me from practicing care in the way I want to, which is to help people with their needs and not be concerned about the endless paperwork of a multi-payer system.”