Dr. Christiansen is the past President of the American Medical Women’s Association. In 1955 she earned her MD from Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia (now known as MCP-HU). Her diverse medical career has involved a private practice in general practice in Ohio, maternal and child health in the inner city clinics of Denver, CO and School Health for Denver Public Schools, college health at Colorado Women’s College for 2 years followed by 18 years at University of Denver Student Health Service where she was a staff physician and also medical director the last 9 years. She was also part of the clinical faculty in Family Medicine at University of Colorado School of Medicine and Medical Director and staff physician at Columbine Family Health Center.
Thomas Billroth Gottlieb, MD
President, Health Care for All Colorado Foundation
Dr. Tom Gottlieb has 48 years experience in health care and was trained as a biochemist at the University of Colorado Boulder and as a physician at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center (UCHSC) in Denver. He worked in the Public Health Service (Indian Health Service), University of Colorado Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Denver Neighborhood Health Center (medical director), and private practice (Internal Medicine) in West Denver. His experiences include directorship of the Lutheran Medical Center Joint Venture (an Accountable Care Organization), a founder and medical director of a primary care group, New West Physicians, and founder and president of Denver Oncology Consortium. He practiced evidence-based practice principles with an emphasis on patient values and patient centered decision making. He is now retired and is devoting his time to introduce and implement universal health care financed by a public single-payer system. He has served as a board member for Health Care for All Colorado Foundation since November 2011 and was newly elected president in 2013.
George Pauk, MD
Dr. Pauk received his medical degree was from the University of Iowa, and postdoctoral training was at Gorgas Hospital in Panama, U. of Iowa, and Harvard Medical School. He resides in Phoenix. His experience includes research and practice of Internal Medicine, Endocrinology, and teaching medical students and nurse practitioners. He has served in positions on the staff of the University of Maine, the National Institutes of Health, and the University of Texas.
A More Progressive Economic Agenda
Interview With Dr. Steffie Woolhandler
Ralph Nader Radio Hour, July 22, 2017
As the U.S. Senate contemplated detrimental changes to health care, PNHP co-founder Dr. Steffie Woolhandler spoke with Ralph Nader about what a different approach – a single-payer national health program – would mean for patients and doctors.
“Medicare for All would mean that everybody on the day they were born would get an insurance card that would pay for all medically needed care at the doctor or hospital of their choice,” she said.
“For doctors it would mean that everybody came with the same coverage; and we no longer had to worry about would the patient come back to see us for follow-up or would they decide that’s just too expensive.
“That’s not pie in the sky. That is the way that the single–payer systems work in countries like Canada or Scotland.”
Dr. Woolhandler’s interview begins at approximately the 40:10 mark, above.
James G. Kahn, MD, MPH
Preventive Medicine, Health Policy, Health Economics
Dr. Jim Kahn is an emeritus professor at the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California San Francisco. He is past president of the California chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program.
Dr. Kahn is an expert in policy modeling in health care, cost-effectiveness analysis, and evidence-based medicine. He has received over $10 million in NIH and other funding for health economics research, and published more than 225 articles, reports, and book chapters. Dr. Kahn led a team that published a 2020 review in PLoS Medicine of economic studies of single payer health care. Dr. Kahn served on a National Academies of Science/Institute of Medicine committee on the public financing and delivery of HIV care.
Dr. Kahn received his medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine and his master’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley. He completed a residency in preventive medicine at UC Berkeley, an international health fellowship for the CDC and the Ministry of Health – Central African Republic, and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Health Policy Studies, UCSF.
Kevin Grumbach, MD, FAAFP
Family Medicine
Dr. Kevin Grumbach is professor of family and community medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. He cares for patients at the family medicine practices at San Francisco General Hospital and UCSF Health.
Dr. Grumbach served as chair of the UCSF Department of Family and Community Medicine from 2003-2022, and as vice president for population health for the UCSF Health system from 2015-2018. He is a founding director of the UCSF Center for Excellence in Primary Care and director of the Community Engagement Program for the UCSF Clinical and Translational Science Institute.
Dr. Grumbach has written or contributed to over 100 articles on the primary care workforce, innovations in primary care, diversity in the health professions, and community health improvement and health equity. With Tom Bodenheimer, Dr. Grumbach co-authored the bestselling textbook, “Understanding Health Policy: A Clinical Approach,” now in its eighth edition, as well as the book, “Improving Primary Care: Strategies and Tools for a Better Practice.”
Dr. Grumbach has been an advisor to Congressional committees and government agencies on primary care and health reform, and a member of the National Advisory Council for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and currently serves on the California Health Workforce Education and Training Council. He was a co-founder of the California Physicians’ Alliance, which merged with Physicians for a National Health Program in 1993 to become the California chapter of PNHP.
Henry Abrons, MD, MPH
Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine
Dr. Hank Abrons is a physician in Berkeley, CA who retired from the faculty at Highland Hospital (Alameda County Medical Center). He was previously associate professor of Medicine at West Virginia University, where his research focused on epidemiology, physiology, and clinical features of occupational lung disease. His clinical practice focused on critical care, chronic lung disease, and cystic fibrosis. Prior to his appointment at WVU, Dr. Abrons worked for three years in the U.S. Public Health Service.
He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard College, medical degree from Case Western Reserve University, and master’s degree from the University of Illinois. He is past-president of the California chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program, served on PNHP’s board of directors, and is a member of the national advisory board.
Stephen B. Kemble, MD
Internal Medicine/Psychiatry
Dr. Steve Kemble is recently retired from the private practice of psychiatry and continues to work as a psychiatrist embedded in a hospital-based primary care clinic serving a mostly Medicaid and uninsured population. He also teaches psychiatric aspects of general medical care to internal medicine residents as an assistant clinical professor of both Medicine and Psychiatry at the University of Hawaii School of Medicine.
Dr. Kemble is a past president of both the Hawaii Psychiatric Medical Association and the Hawaii Medical Association. He has a longstanding interest in health care reform, and he was appointed to the Hawaii Health Authority in 2011, charged with overall health planning for the State of Hawaii and with designing a universal health care system covering everyone in the state. Dr. Kemble serves on the board of Physicians for a National Health Program and chairs the PNHP Policy Committee.
Dr. Kemble attended medical school at the John A. Burns School of Medicine when it was a 2-year school, and completed medical school at Harvard. He trained in both internal medicine and psychiatry.
Paul Gorman, MD, FACP, FACMI
Internal Medicine
Dr. Paul Gorman, recently retired, is professor emeritus in the Department of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). He previously served as assistant dean for rural medical education at OHSU. A fellow of the American College of Physicians and a fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics, he is board-certified in internal medicine.
Dr. Gorman completed formal training at Rush Medical College in Chicago and learned about the realities of primary care while in private practice on the Oregon coast. Over three decades at OHSU, he divided his efforts between clinical teaching, medical informatics research, and medical school curriculum. Dr. Gorman has been active in the Medicare-for-All movement, PNHP, and the Measure 23 Campaign in Oregon. He is a proud honorary member of the “Mad As Hell Doctors” group that campaigned for single-payer health care in 2009 during the passage of the Affordable Care Act.
David McLanahan, MD
Surgery
Dr. David McLanahan is surgeon emeritus at Pacific Medical Center and clinical associate professor emeritus at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He was previously chief of general surgery at Pacific Medical Center. In 2002, he published, with Sandra McLanahan, “Surgery and its Alternatives; How to Make the Right Choices for Your Health.”
Dr. McLanahan received his medical degree from the Temple University School of Medicine; he completed his internship at the U.S. Public Health Service Hospital at Staten Island and residency at Staten Island University Hospital. He is a diplomate of the National Board of Medical Examiners and the American Board of Surgery. Dr. McLanahan serves as coordinator of the Washington state chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program, and an advisor and former member of PNHP’s national board. He received the Dr. Quentin Young Health Activist Award in 2007 for recognition of his longtime advocacy for universal health care.
John P. Geyman, MD
Family Medicine
Dr. John Geyman is professor emeritus of family medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, where he served as chairman of the department of family medicine from 1976 to 1990. A family physician with over 25 years in academic medicine, he has also practiced in rural communities for 13 years.
He was the founding editor of the Journal of Family Practice from 1973 to 1990 and the editor of the Journal of the American Board of Family Practice from 1990 to 2003. His most recent books include “Breaking Point: How the Primary Care Crisis Endangers the Lives of Americans” and “Hijacked: the Road to Single Payer in the Aftermath of Stolen Health Care Reform.”
Dr. Geyman is a past president of Physicians for a National Health Program and a member of the Institute of Medicine.
Vincent J. Markovchick, MD, FAAEM, FACEP
Emergency
Dr. Vince Markovchick is professor emeritus of emergency medicine at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine and past director of emergency medical services at Denver Health Medical Center. He is the former Denver health director of emergency medical services. He is the co-author of “Emergency Medicine Secrets, 5th Edition.”
Dr. Markovchick has been instrumental in the development of emergency medicine for more than three decades. He has been an oral board examiner for the American Board of Emergency Medicine, president of the Colorado chapter of the ACEP, co-editor of the Annals of Emergency Medicine, vice-president of the Colorado Trauma Institute, medical director of the Denver Fire Department, emergency physician to Pope John Paul II and World Youth Day, president of the American Board of Emergency Medicine, and chairman of the ACEP academic affairs committee, among many other positions.
Dr. Markovchick’s many awards include the Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association’s Excellence in Teaching Award, the Denver Health and Hospitals’ Outstanding Career Service Faculty Teaching Award, ACEP’s Outstanding Contribution to Education Award, the Peter Rosen Leadership Award, and the Alumni Achievement Award from Temple University School of Medicine. He was appointed the first emeritus professor of emergency medicine by the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
