Dr. Asif Mahmood was raised in a small crowded home at the edge of Kharian, a village in rural Pakistan. Because his elementary school could not afford chairs or desks, most of his classes took place outside on the grass under the trees.

Asif’s father’s dream was to become a doctor, but he was forced to leave school and support his family at a young age. Instead, his dad passed that dream onto his son. Asif worked hard in school and became the first student from his village to score high enough on exams to attend medical school.

After receiving his medical degree from one of Pakistan’s top medical schools in 1987, now Dr. Mahmood, came to the United States in 1991 and chose to complete his medical residency at the University of Kentucky. In Lexington, he married his wife, Noshaba, in a traditional Pakistani wedding surrounded by their Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Hindu friends. In 2000, he moved with his family to California, where he has practiced medicine ever since. Dr. Mahmood is a pulmonologist and doctor of internal medicine, practicing at a number of hospitals in the Los Angeles area.

Dr. Mahmood has based his life’s work on a single principal taught to him by his parents: that helping others is our highest calling.

He has personally treated thousands of under-privileged patients in the last seventeen years: patients in the ER, critical care, inpatients, and as they leave the hospital. He knows their struggles – ranging from insurance coverage issues, prescription drug issues, in and out of network issues, follow up issues, and support beyond medical care. Dr. Mahmood has made it a rule in his hospital practice — if a patient doesn’t have insurance, his office won’t ask for payment.

Dr. Mahmood resides with his wife and three teenage children in the Los Angeles area. He has played leading roles in philanthropic efforts for non-profit organizations such as UNICEF and East Los Angeles College. He also volunteers at a free clinic in North Hollywood.

I commit to you that I will not accept campaign contributions from insurance or pharmaceutical companies. Those businesses are not my constituents — you are. California is the largest insurance market in the country, dealing with hundreds of billions of dollars each year. What Californians need is an Insurance Commissioner who will fight for each of those dollars to go back to Californians in the form of high quality care, service, and protection.