We are now 5 years into the national healthcare law, the Affordable Care Act. The deadline for purchasing insurance this year is Feb. 15. Although more people have health insurance, we have not changed the healthcare system in the United States. The same problems of lack of access to care because of cost, medical debt and bankruptcy and poor health outcomes continue. Dr. Robert Zarr, the new president of Physicians for a National Health Program, joins us to talk about the current healthcare system and the newly introduced HR 676 Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act in Congress that would create a single payer health system. We also speak with Ellen Schwartz of the Vermont Workers Center about their work to push for a universal healthcare system at the state level.
Listen live at 11 am:
Still Fighting for Health Care as a Human Right with Ellen Schwartz and Dr. Robert Zarr by Clearingthefog on Mixcloud
Relevant articles and websites:
Doctors’ Group Hails Reintroduction of Medicare for All Bill
Dr. Robert Zarr on “The Big Picture”
Building a Grassroots Movement for the Human Right to Health Care
Physicians for a National Health Program
Vermont Workers Center – Healthcare is a Human Right Campaign
Guests:
Dr. Robert Zarr is a board-certified pediatrician at Unity Health Care in Washington, DC, where he cares for a low-income and immigrant population. He is president of Physicians for a National Health Program.
Dr. Zarr is a past president of the DC Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and he holds adjunct professorships at Children’s National Medical Center, George Washington University and Georgetown University. He also co-directs the Washington, DC chapter of PNHP. He is “physician champion” of DC Park Rx, a community health initiative to prescribe nature to patients and families and encourage time in one of 350 parks and green spaces in Washington, DC.
Dr. Zarr is fluent and literate in Spanish and has worked in the U.S. and abroad with Spanish-speaking populations. He is active in Washington, DC, in a variety of quality improvement initiatives including asthma management, injury prevention, literacy promotion, breastfeeding awareness, youth advocacy, tuberculosis prevention, and compliance with early and periodic screening, diagnostic and treatment standards.
Dr. Zarr received his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine and completed his pediatric residency at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. He also has a master’s degree in public health, specializing in international health, from the University of Texas School of Public Health.
Ellen Schwartz is a recently retired teacher, who worked for 30 years in the public schools of Vermont and Massachusetts. She is co-editor of a book called Making Space for Active Learning: The Art and Practice of Teaching (Teachers College Press, 2014). She does occasional consulting with teachers and works as a mentor to Practitioner Fellows working with the Prospect School and Center Archives, housed at the University of Vermont.