Candidate for 8th Congressional District Hopes to Achieve Single-Payer Healthcare System

Dr. Robbie Goldstein said his decision for seeking the 8th Congressional district seat boils down to just one thing: assuring that all citizens have access to universal and comprehensive healthcare coverage.

“I’m a firm believer in a single-payer healthcare system, which is the only way to both guarantee access and controls cost,” Dr. Goldstein, a primary care physician at Mass General Hospital and South Boston resident, said of his decision to challenge the incumbent, Stephen Lynch. “One thing I often say in this race is my goal is to bring healthcare to all Americans, but I think of that as being much larger than an insurance card in everyone’s pocket.”

Dr. Robbie Goldstein, a candidate for the 8th Congressional district,
as well as a primary care physician at Mass General Hospital.

A native of Pittsfield, N.Y., outside Rochester, Dr. Goldstein relocated to the Boston area nearly two decades ago to attend Tufts University, from where he earned both undergraduate and graduate degrees, including a PhD in cancer genetics. He then came to MGH for his medical training before eventually joining its faculty.

Today, Dr. Goldstein is a primary care physician at Mass General, as well an infectious disease specialist focused on treating those living with or at risk of contracting HIV. Besides seeing his own patients and overseeing a staff of 10, he teaches at Harvard Medical School, where he has helped create an additional LBTGQ curriculum. He is also the author of numerous articles published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Dr. Goldstein said the COVID-19 pandemic is an issue that now often preoccupies him not only as a medical professional who specializes in treating infectious diseases, but also as a Congressional hopeful who would represent the eastern portion of the state and includes portions of Bristol, Norfolk, Plymouth, and Suffolk counties.

“I think about COVID-19 nonstop from a physician’s standpoint, meaning taking care of patients who have been diagnosed with it, as well as administering primary care to people who are fearful of contracting it,” he said. “As a candidate for Congress, I also think about COVID-19 because I recognize the failed response of the federal government in the early days of the pandemic.”

Dr. Goldstein added, “We need to consider the systematic defunding and de-prioritization of the public health infrastructure that has taken place over the last four years, and that failure in many ways prevented us from responding how we should have in the early days of COVID-19.”

As a member of Congress, he would aim to open up dialogue in Washington, D.C., that considers healthcare in less-constricting terms.

“I recognize that housing is healthcare, climate change is healthcare and food security is healthcare,” Dr. Goldstein said. “I hope to have a broader conversation on this issue in Washington and use my experience to drive that conversation.”

Moreover, Dr. Goldstein believes he would be well suited for Congress because of one personal trait that has served him well as a medical professional: he’s a very attentive listener.

“Of the skill and experience I bring as a physician, the most important ability I have is listening to people and being able to bring those stories to the halls of Congress,” he said.

For more information on Dr. Goldstein’s campaign, visit Robbieforchange.com.

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