Why is National Single Payer organizing a National Day of Action on May 31 amid cuts and freezes to public health programs? How has an incremental approach to universal health care in America made comprehensive healthcare reform more difficult?

To find out, we recently talked to Dr. Ana Malinow, who spent three decades working as a pediatrician with immigrant, refugee and underserved children before retiring as clinical professor of Pediatrics from UC San Francisco School of Medicine. The past president of Physicians for a National Health Program, she is on the steering committee of National Single Payer. She’s also a lead organizer for The Movement to End Privatization of Medicare.

This is the first episode in a two-part series.