This is episode 39, “How Medicare Integrated Hospitals.” It is a special episode to celebrate the 55th anniversary of the passage of Medicare on July 30, 1965.

My guest, Dr. Barbara Berney, MPH, PhD, produced the documentary, “Power to Heal: Medicare and the Civil Rights Revolution.” The film describes how the creation of Medicare was used to desegregate thousands of hospitals in a few months. 

Her diverse experience in public health includes working as a frontline health worker in Watts for the Los Angeles County Health Department, as a policy analyst with the United Mine Workers Health and Retirement Funds and with the federal government.

Dr. Berney is a distinguished scholar in public health, environmental justice, and the U.S. health care system. She is Emeritus Associate Professor at the City University of New York School of Public Health, and holds an MPH in Health Administration from UCLA and a PhD in Public Policy from Boston University where she was a Pew Scholar. 

Do not miss this episode as Dr. Berney discusses how Medicare was used to integrate hospitals and the lessons that provides for today. 

Note, information about the “Power to Heal: Medicare and the Civil Rights Revolution” can be found at here, and you can purchase the film here.