Meet Dr. Ron Birnbaum, our newest unsung hero of healthcare reform! This project of HEAL California highlights the hard work and dedication of individuals who are working – often in the background – to win Medicare-for-All in California and the nation.
After being discharged from the U.S. Navy and before a dermatology residency, Ron Birnbaum was confronted with the “savagery” of our healthcare system.
At the time, he was doing research for vaccines for Leishmaniasis, a disease that is a problem in the third world, and working at a free clinic in Los Angeles. This was before the Affordable Care Act was implemented, and the clinic served people who had little or no access to healthcare.
“It was a dramatic demonstration of all the problems of our healthcare system, in particular, how it hurts the most underserved people. I knew that if I wrote prescriptions, they would not be able to get them filled elsewhere. We would give them medications we had available at the clinic. The savagery came with people who needed more help than we could give. They were supposed to get help from the county system. But it was a referral system that didn’t really work.”
The now-47-year-old’s journey has included canvassing for progressive Democrat candidates, serving as a Democratic party delegate from his home area, and running for office himself. He’s currently part of a group of California physicians and healthcare advocates who have launched the Single Payer Political Action Committee, dedicated to electing strong pro-single payer candidates to the California Legislature and statewide offices.
The PAC was created to elect super majorities of pro-single payer candidates to the California Assembly and Senate. Their strategy is to build a “Healthy Majority” in the state Legislature.
A son of Argentinian immigrants, Birnbaum was born in Buffalo, New York and grew up in Toledo, Ohio. He graduated from Yale University, joined the Navy and went to University of California, San Francisco Medical School. He says his parents taught him that a citizen in a democracy must take part in a public life.
“I knew I wanted to be part of the circus of the world instead of cloistered in my work,” Birnbaum said, describing why he signed up for the Navy as well as went to medical school. “I wanted to be helping people directly and wanted to tie my work to service, to use medicine to see different things and help in different ways.”
He served four years, with three deployments, including time in the Middle East during the Iraq War. He started medical school 
in 1993. He did the normal four years then spent two additional years on research in childhood leukemia. He originally thought about pediatric oncology but decided on dermatology.
Running for a vacant Assembly seat wasn’t part of a long-standing plan. It was more about his experience as a doctor, and his belief that the state needed leaders to champion Medicare-for-All in California. But it went beyond that as he evolved into candidate from an activist.
“I began connecting the dots between healthcare and vital issues such as housing and renters’ rights, income inequality, education, the environment, and money in politics. While healthcare was at my core, one of the differences between an issue-focused activist and a candidate for a broad-portfolio office is seeing and understanding the broader range of issues while maintaining focus on key ones.”
This, along with a shuffling of state and congressional seats in his Northeast Los Angeles district, prompted him to enter the race for Assembly District 51. He didn’t win. But his zeal for activism or even another election race hasn’t abated. He also wants to change the narrative for progressives raising money.
“I was not bad at raising money from people one at a time. I worked hard at that. For some progressives, that is not easy. What is hard for all progressives is finding clean institutional money. Too often progressives declare defeat on raising money from individuals. When what they need to do is work hard at that, because it is – mostly – a clean source. Single Payer PAC isn’t really about replacing that effort so much as adding to the possibilities of clean money on the organizational side.”
Money from the Single Payer PAC will go to candidates who are viable and who are clear champions of SB 562, Healthy California Act, or some similar proposed legislation. People who won’t be taking corporate money or who at least won’t be taking money from Big Pharma, insurance companies like Blue Shield or money from entities opposed to single payer.
The problems of our healthcare system have changed, Dr. Birnbaum said. They have improved in Los Angeles County. But even now in his work, he still sees the same things, though they’ve been shuffled around a bit.
“We should be doing single payer in California. For it to happen, it either has to happen through congress, California Legislature or a ballot initiative. All of this requires a grassroots movement. It’s too big of a change without that.”
As for his running for office again?
“I would run in the future if the right seat opens, if I thought I could make a strong contribution in the office in question, and it was the right time for my family. A good candidate has to be good at running in an election and governing. That’s a weird set of skills to find in one person, but I think they do coincide in me. That said, I like being a doctor, and I’m not looking for a career change per se. The personal issue here is about where I could make a best impact. If serving in elected office seems the best way, then that’s the way I’ll go.”
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