Rebuilding the US Health Left
The most recent edition of Social Medicine, our on-line academic journal has just been published. We will post a short description of the articles later this week, but wanted to share the lead editorial entitled: Rebuilding the US Health Left. We would be most interested in comments from readers of the Portal.
Rebuilding the US Health Left
Matthew R. Anderson, MD, MS, Lanny Smith, MD, MPH, and Victor W. Sidel, MD
With this issue Social Medicine begins a series of invited papers on the topic: “Rebuilding the US Health Left.” In this editorial, we will outline our vision for this series.
We undertake this project aware that our good friend and mentor, Dr. Walter Lear, one of the leading health activists of the 20th century, lies critically ill. Walter was the creator and custodian of the US Health Left Archives, a collection that is now with the University of Pennsylvania library. The collection reminds us of the important role Left health care workers played in US history throughout the 20th century. They advocated for a national health program (Committee on the Costs of Medical Care, Physicians Forum, Medical Care Section/APHA, HealthPAC, Physicians for a National Health Program, National Physicians Alliance), provided international solidarity (American Soviet Medical Society, international brigades during the Spanish Civil War, Central American Solidarity Movement, Committee to Help Chilean Health Workers, Doctors for Global Health), traced the connections between disease and social class (Sigerist Circle, Spirit of 1848 Caucus/APHA), fought for workers’ health (Councils for Occupational Safety and Health; Occupational Health and Safety Section/APHA) participated in anti-war movements (Medical Committee for Human Rights, Physicians for Social Responsibility, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Peace Caucus/APHA), created new models of health care delivery (Health Cooperatives, Prepaid Health Maintenance Organizations, Community Health Centers, National Health Service Corps, Free Clinics), were central to the struggle for women’s rights (Planned Parenthood, Physicians for Repro-ductive Choice and Health), supported the civil rights movement both in medicine and in the broader society (National Medical Association, Medical Committee for Human Rights), played key roles in the movement for gay rights (ACT-UP, Gay & Lesbian Medical Association, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Caucus/APHA), challenged traditional models of medical education (Student Health Organizations, AMSA, Residency Program in Social Medicine), and worked in many, many other fields.
It is not by chance that “leftie” physicians were specifically targeted during the McCarthy era. Tragically, the repression of progressive ideas within the medical community had a chilling impact during the 1950’s when many progressive physicians were blacklisted and some saw their careers ruined. Organized medicine – through the AMA – made its peace with the nascent medical-industrial complex, becoming ever more conservative and eschewing the social values that had informed much of the medical community in the earlier parts of the century. By 1961, the AMA’s Women’s Auxiliary (composed of doctor’s wives) participated in “Operation Coffeecup” during which they met to listen to Ronald Reagan discuss “the evils of socialized medicine”; their goal was to defeat an early version of Medicare.
– to read the rest, please click here. And please leave us your comments.
posted by Matt Anderson
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