National Healthcare System Expert to Deliver Kates Lecture Dec. 8

Story posted November 30, 2009

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David U. Himmelstein, M.D., an expert on the cost of U.S. healthcare and an advocate for a national healthcare system, will deliver Bowdoin's Arnold D. Kates Lecture at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, December 8, 2009, in Pickard Theater, Memorial Hall.

Himmelstein's talk, titled "Why We Need Single-Payer National Health Insurance," is open to the public and admission is free.

David Himmelstein graduated from Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, and completed a medical residency at Highland Hospital in Oakland, California, and a fellowship in general internal medicine at Harvard University.

He has authored or co-authored more than 100 journal articles and three books, including widely cited studies of medical bankruptcy and the high administrative costs of the healthcare system in the United States. His 1984 study of "patient dumping" led to the enactment of the Emergency Medical Labor and Treatment Act, the law that banned the practice.

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In 1987, Himmelstein co-founded Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), a single-issue organization advocating a universal, comprehensive single-payer national health program. PNHP has more than 17,000 members and chapters across the United States and educates physicians and other health professionals about the benefits of a single-payer system.

The Arnold D. Kates Lectureship, established in 2000, celebrates the creativity and innovation in health related issues and communicates this information to a broad audience. The topics addressed since the lectureship's inception include stem cell research, bioethics, genetic underpinnings of cancer, carcinogens in the work place and the human brain's response to stress.

Arnold D. Kates (1898–1986) recognized the importance of cultivating innovation and communicating ideas. A graduate of Stuyvesant High School and the City University of New York, he founded Mailographic in 1929, a printing and direct mail advertising company. He was a man "ahead of his times" in his openness to change, his appreciation of technology and his recognition of diverse cultures, both in the United States and around the world. Although not a scientist, his curiosity about medical advances and drug development led him to attend medical conferences and seminars. He particularly enjoyed his visits to Bowdoin, and included the College in his support of small liberal arts colleges from Maine to Pennsylvania.

Marc B. Garnick and Barbara Kates-Garnick established this lectureship in Arnold Kates's honor. Marc, Bowdoin '68 and University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine '72, is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, a practicing physician at the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, a consultant to biotechnology companies and the editor-in-chief of Perspectives on Prostate Disease, a publication of Harvard Medical School. Marc is a trustee of both Bowdoin College and Penn Medicine. Barbara Kates-Garnick, a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and Tufts University, Ph.D. '84, is currently directing Polytechnic Institute of New York University to develop a program on urban infrastructure and sustainability. She has been an officer at a Fortune 500 company and a decision maker on a range of energy and environmental matters, and serves on several non-profit and for-profit boards.

Himmelstein's Bowdoin lecture is also presented as part of the series "Seeking the Common Good," presented by the Joseph McKeen Center for the Common Good.

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