By Russell Mokhiber
Single Payer Action
February 8, 2010
Single payer activists David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler are moving to New York City.
In the fall of 2010, they will become full professors at the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Public Health at Hunter College.
The two doctors – leaders in the movement for a single payer system in the United States – have lived and practiced in the Boston area since 1982.
Both currently teach at the Harvard Medical School.
They are co-founders of Physicians for a National Health Program.
The two single payer docs were in New York City this weekend looking for a place to live.
Both Himmelstein and Woolhandler have family in New York.
Himmelstein grew up in New York City and went to school there.
Himmelstein said that there were pushes and pulls in their decision to leave Boston and Harvard for New York and CUNY.
The pull included a “very attractive offer” from the City University where “we can do what we want and not have to worry about raising funds.”
CUNY is home to a number of public health activists – including the acting dean of the school – Kenneth Olden – and Professor Nick Freudenberg.