POWER TO HEAL: MEDICARE AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS REVOLUTION is an hour-long documentary chronicling the historic struggle to secure equal and adequate access to healthcare for all Americans. Central to the story is the tale of how a new national program, Medicare, was used to mount a dramatic, coordinated effort that racially desegregated thousands of hospitals across the country, all in a matter of months in 1966. Using the carrot of Medicare dollars, the federal government virtually ended the practice of segregating patients, doctors, medical staffs, blood supplies and linens. As one of the least known chapters of the civil rights movement, POWER TO HEAL examines how its leaders and grass-roots volunteers pressed and worked with the federal government to achieve justice and fairness for African Americans.
