NEW ORLEANS, April 29 (UPI) -- Dr. William Stewart, who as U.S. surgeon-general refused Medicare funding to segregated hospitals, has died at the age of 86.
Stewart became surgeon general a year after the landmark 1964 report on smoking and health. He continued the anti-tobacco crusade, commissioning more research on the effects of smoking and recommending tougher warning labels on cigarettes, The Washington Post reported.
Suffering from kidney failure, Stewart died Wednesday at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans.
A native of Minneapolis, Stewart moved to Louisiana with his parents when he was in college. He worked at the National Heart Institute and the Public Health Service before President Lyndon Johnson named him surgeon-general in 1965.
In his four years in the position, Stewart was the most activist surgeon-general in history. He forced hospitals to treat patients and employees equally by tying Medicare funding to desegregation and criticized doctors for creating "a gleaming antiseptic world of medical evidence" open only to those who could afford it.
