She has written extensively on socioeconomic issues in American medicine, particularly the difficulties faced by people without timely access to medical services because of financial, geographic, cultural and other barriers. Wielawski was a staff writer for nearly 20 years for daily newspapers, including The Los Angeles Times, where she was a member of the investigations team. Subsequently, with a research grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, she tracked local efforts to care for the medically uninsured following the demise of President Clinton’s health reform plan.