“I’m not so much interested in the dogma of one political party or another, but in what the evidence has proven should actually work to make our health care system better.”
Biography: Matthew Scott Painschab is concerned, first and foremost, with health care reform. The second-year medical student is co-coordinator of the School of Medicine’s Saturday Neighborhood Health Clinic, a free clinic for St. Louisans lacking health insurance.
“I’m not so much interested in the dogma of one political party or another, but in what the evidence has proven should actually work to make our health care system better,” says Painschab, who is originally from Waverly, Minnesota. “What can we do to increase health care access for those who don’t have it, and what can we do to keep health care costs down and keep the system feasible?”
Last year, Painschab and a fellow student organized a trip for Washington University medical students to Jefferson City, Missouri’s capital, to talk to legislators about the need to find new ways to increase access to health care and to listen to the legislators’ perspectives on health care reform.
Painschab, who double-majored in genetics, cell biology and development, and political science at the University of Minnesota, is also chair of the American Medical Association’s local student chapter and a co-coordinator for the local chapter of Physicians for Human Rights.
Hometown: Waverton, MN
Major/minor: Second-year medical student
Student contact information: Cell: (763) 234-5055 E-mail: painschabm@wustl.edu