• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

PNHP

  • About PNHP
    • Mission Statement
    • Board of Directors
    • National Office Staff
    • Speakers Bureau
    • Local Chapters
    • Students for a National Health Program
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
  • About Single Payer
    • What is Single Payer?
      • Policy Details
      • FAQs
      • History of Health Reform
      • Información en Español
    • How do we pay for it?
    • Physicians’ Proposal
      • Full Proposal
      • Supplemental Materials
      • Media Coverage
    • The Medicare for All Act of 2025
  • Take Action
    • Moral Injury and Distress
    • Medical Society Resolutions
    • Recruit Colleagues
    • Schedule a Grand Rounds
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Lobby Visits
    • Organizing in Red Districts
  • Heal Medicare
    • HealMedicare.org
    • Sign our Petition
    • Take our Survey
    • Medicare Disadvantage
    • Stop REACH
  • Kitchen Table Campaign
    • Medicare Disadvantage
    • Maternal Mortality
    • Mental Health Care
    • Health Care Voters Guide
    • COVID-19 Endangers Health Workers
    • COVID-19 Exacerbates Racial Inequities
    • Public Health Emergencies
    • Rural Health Care
    • Racial Health Inequities
    • Surprise Billing
  • Latest News
    • Sign up for e-alerts
    • Medicare Advantage harms report
    • Members in the news
    • Health Justice Monitor
    • Articles of Interest
    • Latest Research
    • For the Press
  • Member Resources
    • 2024 Annual Meeting Materials
    • Member Interest Groups (MIGs)
    • Newsletter
    • Slideshows
    • Materials & Handouts
    • Kitchen Table Campaign
    • COVID-19 Response
      • Why we Need Medicare for All
      • PNHP’s 8-point plan
      • New Study: Perils and Possibilities
      • Emergency COVID-19 Legislation
      • Kitchen Table Toolkit
      • Take Action on COVID-19
      • Telling your COVID-19 story
      • PNHP members in the news
    • Events Calendar
    • Webinars
    • Film Room
    • Join or renew your membership
  • Home
  • Contact PNHP
  • Join PNHP
  • Donate
  • PNHP Store

Articles of Interest

Advocating for a Single Payer System

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Passionate students spread their message to their peers

By Anna Zelivianskaia
Chicago Medicine, January 2014 

Imagine these all-too-likely scenarios: Lisa Palmson recently lost her mother to breast cancer. Due to her family history, the physician recommends tamoxifen as a chemoprevention therapy. However, Lisa is unable to afford the co-pay. Paul Johnson has felt a burning sensation around his stomach for several weeks and it has recently gotten worse. Visits to his primary care physician are mostly covered by his insurance but his PCP refers him to a gastroenterologist whose services are not covered until Paul reaches a large annual insurance deductible. As a result, Paul cannot afford a visit. A year later he is diagnosed with gastric carcinoma due to Helicobacter pylori infection, a preventable cancer when caught early.

These types of scenarios happen every day in physician offices in America. Our health care system allows for high numbers of uninsured and underinsured, which prevents us from achieving the degree of care we are capable of. Medical decisions are no longer between the patient and doctor. Instead, every therapy and test must be approved by insurance companies, which operate with the goal of making a profit. Fortunately, many passionate medical students in Chicago are stepping up to advocate for changes.

Driven by the desire to improve patient care, medical students are educating other students and the public about the merits of a publicly funded, privately delivered, single-payer health care system. Scott Goldberg, an MS2 at the University of Chicago, has advocated for a single-payer system for several years and is now training other students to do so. He has set up workshops on how to write a political op-ed, trained students in community organizing, and even began educating undergraduates on the merits of a single payer. “For me,” he says, “it just made complete sense. Why can’t the richest country in the history of the world provide equitable, comprehensive insurance to all of its citizens? Until we eliminate private health insurance companies, we will never be able to fully achieve the ideal doctor-patient relationship in the American health care system.”

Similarly, Margaret Russell, an MS2 at Northwestern University, educates students on how our health care system works as well as teaches them the skills to change it. She recently presented an informational session on the federal bill for a single-payer system, H.R. 676. For Margaret, the fight is close to home: “I have seen firsthand how our fragmented and unjust insurance system stands in the way of patients receiving adequate care when they need it. … It is morally and ethically wrong for a patient’s insurance status to dictate the quality of their care.”

This passion comes from a fundamental belief that patients are more than their presenting symptoms and vital signs. These students realize that each patient has a unique set of circumstances but is part of a homogenizing system obsessed with profit. However, it is noteworthy that the most fervent student advocates, such as Scott and Margaret, tend to enter medical school believing in the urgent need for health care reform. As a medical community, we must try harder to make advocates out of other students who did not enter with such beliefs or background knowledge. Student-to-student advocacy is inspiring but not enough.

Medical education has changed drastically over the last several years in very commendable ways. Curriculum changes at some schools include education on systematic flaws. However, classroom information often stops at the problems and not at potential solutions or opportunities for student advocacy. Medical schools should constantly improve training in this area since student empowerment is a key step toward patient empowerment. Every medical school should provide systematic education on the inner workings of the medical system and reform options. We need to fix the system together for the sake of our patients.

Anna Zelivianskaia will graduate in 2016 from the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine. The opinions expressed in this column are strictly those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Chicago Medical Society. All members are encouraged to submit opinion pieces.

http://www.cmsdocs.org/news-publications/chicago-medicine-magazine/2014-issues/January2014.pdf

Primary Sidebar

Recent Articles of Interest

  • Atlanta doctors: We can’t let Washington gut Medicaid
  • How To Make America Sick
  • The Case for Universal Healthcare with Dr. Diljeet Singh
  • Proposed Medicaid cuts could lead to thousands of deaths, study finds
  • Medicare for All Explained Podcast: Episode 124
  • About PNHP
    • Mission Statement
    • Board of Directors
    • National Office Staff
    • Speakers Bureau
    • Local Chapters
    • Students for a National Health Program
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
  • About Single Payer
    • What is Single Payer?
      • Policy Details
      • FAQs
      • History of Health Reform
      • Información en Español
    • How do we pay for it?
    • Physicians’ Proposal
      • Full Proposal
      • Supplemental Materials
      • Media Coverage
    • The Medicare for All Act of 2025
  • Take Action
    • Moral Injury and Distress
    • Medical Society Resolutions
    • Recruit Colleagues
    • Schedule a Grand Rounds
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Lobby Visits
    • Organizing in Red Districts
  • Heal Medicare
    • HealMedicare.org
    • Sign our Petition
    • Take our Survey
    • Medicare Disadvantage
    • Stop REACH
  • Kitchen Table Campaign
    • Medicare Disadvantage
    • Maternal Mortality
    • Mental Health Care
    • Health Care Voters Guide
    • COVID-19 Endangers Health Workers
    • COVID-19 Exacerbates Racial Inequities
    • Public Health Emergencies
    • Rural Health Care
    • Racial Health Inequities
    • Surprise Billing
  • Latest News
    • Sign up for e-alerts
    • Medicare Advantage harms report
    • Members in the news
    • Health Justice Monitor
    • Articles of Interest
    • Latest Research
    • For the Press
  • Member Resources
    • 2024 Annual Meeting Materials
    • Member Interest Groups (MIGs)
    • Newsletter
    • Slideshows
    • Materials & Handouts
    • Kitchen Table Campaign
    • COVID-19 Response
      • Why we Need Medicare for All
      • PNHP’s 8-point plan
      • New Study: Perils and Possibilities
      • Emergency COVID-19 Legislation
      • Kitchen Table Toolkit
      • Take Action on COVID-19
      • Telling your COVID-19 story
      • PNHP members in the news
    • Events Calendar
    • Webinars
    • Film Room
    • Join or renew your membership

Footer

  • About PNHP
    • Mission Statement
    • Board of Directors
    • National Office Staff
    • Speakers Bureau
    • Local Chapters
    • Students for a National Health Program
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
  • About Single Payer
    • What is Single Payer?
      • Policy Details
      • FAQs
      • History of Health Reform
      • Información en Español
    • How do we pay for it?
    • Physicians’ Proposal
      • Full Proposal
      • Supplemental Materials
      • Media Coverage
    • The Medicare for All Act of 2025
  • Take Action
    • Moral Injury and Distress
    • Medical Society Resolutions
    • Recruit Colleagues
    • Schedule a Grand Rounds
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Lobby Visits
    • Organizing in Red Districts
  • Heal Medicare
    • HealMedicare.org
    • Sign our Petition
    • Take our Survey
    • Medicare Disadvantage
    • Stop REACH
  • Kitchen Table Campaign
    • Medicare Disadvantage
    • Maternal Mortality
    • Mental Health Care
    • Health Care Voters Guide
    • COVID-19 Endangers Health Workers
    • COVID-19 Exacerbates Racial Inequities
    • Public Health Emergencies
    • Rural Health Care
    • Racial Health Inequities
    • Surprise Billing
  • Latest News
    • Sign up for e-alerts
    • Medicare Advantage harms report
    • Members in the news
    • Health Justice Monitor
    • Articles of Interest
    • Latest Research
    • For the Press
  • Member Resources
    • 2024 Annual Meeting Materials
    • Member Interest Groups (MIGs)
    • Newsletter
    • Slideshows
    • Materials & Handouts
    • Kitchen Table Campaign
    • COVID-19 Response
      • Why we Need Medicare for All
      • PNHP’s 8-point plan
      • New Study: Perils and Possibilities
      • Emergency COVID-19 Legislation
      • Kitchen Table Toolkit
      • Take Action on COVID-19
      • Telling your COVID-19 story
      • PNHP members in the news
    • Events Calendar
    • Webinars
    • Film Room
    • Join or renew your membership
©2025 PNHP