Dr. Margaret Flowers, Pediatrician, Healthcare Activist

I am a mother of 3 and a pediatrician. I practiced, mostly in Maryland, for about 15 years. I left practice in 2007 to advocate full-time for a single payer health insurance, starting at the state level (I wrote the state health bill, “The Maryland Health Security Act”) and then at the national level as Congressional Fellow for Physicians for a National Health Program in 2009-2010. During the national health reform process, I saw clearly the corporate influence over the legislation. The current federal health law was written by and for the corporations that profit from our current health system. In addition to the traditional approaches of organizing Congressional Briefings, lobbying and testifying, I had my first experience with nonviolent civil resistance when single payer advocates were shut out of the committees. I organized protests and was arrested three times during the health reform process trying to push for reform that was in the interests of patients and health professionals.

After the national reform was signed into law, I traveled the country working with activists on next steps in organizing for single payer/improved Medicare for All. I traveled with the Mad as Hell Doctors too. When people asked how we will eventually wing single payer, I answered that we will see single payer when we win the broader struggle for social, economic and environmental justice. Over that period of travel, it became clearer to me that all who advocate for justice will need to work together in order to have enough strength to make progress. And to be honest, giving people access to health care without addressing the social determinants of health will fail to improve our overall health. One of the greatest drivers of poor health is wealth inequality.

In December, 2010, I had the opportunity to model what I had been saying. I stood with hundreds of others in front of the White House protesting war and 132 of us were arrested.

One of our next projects was a protest against Bank of America in New York City on Tax Day. We joined with 17 different groups to organize this protest and we focused on “people over profits.

I also believe that telling the truth is imperative in this age of propaganda. I am co-host of a radio show, “Clearing the FOG: Speaking truth to expose the Forces of Greed:” which airs on WeAct Radio. I serve on the board of Healthcare-Now.org and am involved in the “Health care is a Human Right” campaign in Maryland. And I am one of the 50 doctors who filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court arguing that the individual mandate which forces people to purchase private insurance is unconstitutional.

I have been interviewed by Bill Moyers and other TV and radio hosts and am published in blogs such as TruthOut.