C. FRAZER SHIPMAN, MD:
From Rural Primary Care in Pennsylvania to Medicare for All in Massachusetts
Added March 22nd to the Shop "How to Study the Mass M4A Bill First 5 Steps 3 Pages for $ 3" This is a step by step guide for newcomers to An Act Establishing Medicare for All in Massachusetts.
ABOUT
C. Frazer Shipman, MD
I will be fixing this paragraph for the next week or two.
For now, my focus is on site visitors who are most interested in the Franklin County Mass Study Group on Mass M4A. Why me? Way back when I was 15 yrs old I decided to study medicine with a focus on National Health Insurance. It was 1964 and America was in a period of very intense social change. While my biology teacher was pointing me toward the biotech aspect of medicine, I felt that American medicine needed a much stronger social conscience. President Kennedy had been assassinated just months before in November of 1963, the civil rights movement was intensely active, and President Johnson was working diligently to pass a bill that would soon be known as the Medicare bill. I volunteered to take the FOR position in our civics class debate on the bill, in my suburb of Philadelphia my classmates were mostly the children of doctors, lawyers, and business leaders. I was the only volunteer for FOR. A few months later I scored in the 99th % in my biology SAT Achievement Test. The rest is history...pre-med (combined with sociology), med school, family medicine residency, two years as a family doctor in the very remote White Mountain Apache Nation, a fellowship in health services research and social medicine paid for by the Johnson and Johnson corporation through its foundation. And then everything fell apart-Reagan beat Carter and J and J ceased being supportive or even tolerant of left leaning doctors like me. From 1982 to now I have done my reform projects during my scant free time while doing full range family medicine-not just the office, full range includes every aspect of the mostly very rural the hospitals I worked in-deliver the babies, cover the ER, the ICU, everything...over the last 42 years I have worked in over 80 locations in a dozen states and five American Indian Nations-Mashpee, Hoopa, Sioux, and 3 years in the Navajo Nation (2013 to 2015). Nights and weekends I did my reform projects-I always had one going so there were a lot of them. Currently I am doing three at the same time-the Franklin County Study Group, indigenous health care reform in Mass, and a study of corruption in the Massachusetts Medical Society. I know of only a handful of my colleagues who have spent the hours I have spent studying and then doing medical care reform projects-for me I am at about 100,000 unpaid hours of these projects. And my wife and children can certify that this is no exaggeration.
I
If you are most interested in the Study Group please go to Reform Project 1 now,
If your interest is the Mass Med Society Medicare for All resolution, go to Reform Project 2
MY WORK
Medicare for All in Massachusetts
Franklin County Study Group
If you are a resident of Franklin County and have seen one of my flyers or heard about the project from someone, many thanks for taking a quick look.
Beginning last summer, I tried to get the Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS), 25,000 members, over 400 million dollars a year in revenue, to allow our Franklin District Medical Society to run a Study Group focusing on our state Medicare for All Bill H.1239/S.744. The MMS doctors all over the state, over 4,000 of them wanted to go forward in all 20 Districts (Counties or parts of Counties). About 30 high level leader doctors, including the 7 Officers, especially the President blocked our effort and prevented us from using "even one penny of State Society (MMS) money. Each District Medical Society is a separate corporation. The 20 District corporations contribute almost all of their dues to the State Medical Society called the MMS. The Franklin District leaders cannot use their own money because the State controls 90% of every penny spent. That is where we were at as of December 9th, 2023.
To keep moving forward, I decided to form a Franklin County Study Group with only my own money and time.
The Franklin County Study Group or FCSG has no meetings, no fees, no requirements, no hassles. I will be uploading useful information and links to help you learn about the bill. That will be in the Reform Projects area of this website. I try to do something every day to improve this site and get you useful info and links. I am slowed down by the constant barriers and challenges thrown at me by the MMS high leaders. Please be patient.
Many thanks for being on the site. Frazer 3/16/24
This project is a major effort to involve many thousands of residents of one county in Massachusetts in learning about an act establishing Medicare for all in Massachusetts Senate Bill 744.
Learn More about our Latest Medical Projects
MY WORK
Press
I am a physician activist and researcher for Mass Medicare for All legislation — An Act Establishing Medicare for All in Massachusetts (H.1239/S.744). Today I posted the first public announcement of our first in the U.S. county level study group focused on a state M4A bill. This is my 60th year as an M4A activist — first speech to my high school civics class in 1964. My activism includes Penn State Medical School, family medicine residency in Bangor, Maine, two years as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Dept of Defense as one of four family doctors caring for 10,000 Apache in the White Mountain Apache Nation, two years as a social medicine fellow at UNC Chapel Hill Medical School in a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Fellowship, and many, many years in the best school — The School of Hard Knocks. I have recently been the author and primary sponsor of two Massachusetts Medical Society M4A resolutions. Both have been defeated by the highest level officers but supported by 4,000 MMS members including the president of the Franklin County District Medical Society who was a co-sponsor on both resolutions. The announcement went up at Catalpa today.
For more info go to www.cfrazershipmanmd.com and keep coming back because my first professional help on the website is tomorrow.
Cullen Shipman, MD
Contact
Phone Number:
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