Marcy Zwelling, M.D.
Marcy was born in Zanesville, Ohio, the daughter of Jerold and Ruth Zwelling. She graduated from Zanesville High School after a 3-year career as a “Devilette,” the Zanesville High School drill team.  There are videos today of her doing high kicks on the 50 yard line, leaving her vulnerable to jokes for the rest of her life. That said, and needing a day job, Marcy looked for a way out of town and into a new career.  She spent her college career at Wellesley College in Massachusetts where she majored in Economics.  Her honors, thesis, “the drivers of increasing cost in health care demographic markets” was the first look at the health care marketplace as a unique demand/supply relationship.  Building on her reputation and experience, Marcy Zwelling-Aamot, M.D. has become a respected member of the California medical community and a prominent voice in the crusade to improve the broken healthcare system.

Dr. Zwelling-Aamot is a quadruple board-certified physician, a notable achievement even among the best doctors in the nation. Marcy graduated with honors from Wellesley College and studied medicine at New York University Medical School where she graduated at the top of her class. Dr. Zwelling arrived in Los Angeles in 1980 and completed her residency training in both Internal and Emergency Medicine at Harbor-UCLA. She achieved board certification in both specialties and went on to complete certifications in Critical Care and Quality Assurance / Utilization Review. Dr. Zwelling served the community as an ER specialist for six years before opening a private primary care practice in Los Alamitos in 1987. She was widely recognized as a physician who would go to extreme lengths for her patients, helping them navigate an increasingly complex and troubled healthcare system. In 2004 Dr. Zwelling-Aamot dramatically reduced the size of her practice, adopting the Concierge Medicine model in order to provide a higher level of access and attention to a smaller number of patients. It was a difficult decision, because Marcy had a personal bond with her patients, all 4000 of them! But it was a decision that proved to be the right one for Dr. Zwelling and her Choice Care patients.

“Choice Care provides my patients a level of access and attention that would be impossible to sustain in a traditional practice with 3-4000 patients. My commitment to my Choice Care patients goes well beyond treating them when they are sick. I act as their trusted health advocate as they navigate the healthcare system. I work hard to keep my patients looking good and feeling great... In sickness and health I do my utmost to give my patients a better day.”

Her professional success has been the platform for her political career in health care.  She serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the California Medical Association after serving as President of the Los Angeles County Medical Association.  She continues to work with the County of Los Angeles where she trained in both Internal Medicine and Emergency Medicine and serves as a hospital commissioner representing Supervisor Don Knabe.  In her spare moments, she was able to get a patent for the “take home Pap Smear” and she owns that patent in most countries in the world. She is actively working to take that product to market. She formulated “Z’s Choice,” a shampoo that actually makes your hair grow and she continues to explore opportunities to give her patients “a better day.”
Marcy continues to write op-ed pieces for newspapers all over the country trying to get her message to the public.  Dr. Z’s passion to improve access to care through her transparency model, has grown into a website http://www.healthylongbeach.org where physicians, hospitals, pharmacies and most every healthcare provider may provide retail pricing direct to the consumer.  

“We must change the conversation about health care reform to center around patients and NOT insurance.  Insurance is an actuarial bet that no one hopes to ever utilize.  It should be readily affordable.  Healthcare, on the other hand, should be something readily accessible to any person who seeks health care be it preventive or curative.” 

Dr. Z is known as THE “go to person” when anyone in Southern California needs an advocate. Her proudest moments are the thank you’s she receives from her patients and their families and her best day is when “Mom has a good day”.  Her goals are simple, “to change the healthcare delivery system in the United States.”  “It will happen because it must.  Our patients deserve to NOT sit in emergency rooms for hours on end.  Our patients’ children need to know that their parents are in a secure medical community with a doctor who cares.  And doctors need to know that their relationships with their patients are central to medical decision making without interference of government or health insurers.”