Let Your Republican Senators Know You’re Disappointed in Their Vote for Tom Price

Yesterday evening, Tom Price was confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services. As has been widely reported, as a member of the House of Representatives, Price used his position to for financial gain by making investments in pharmaceutical and medical device companies whose interests he then supported through his votes. But more concerning is that, as an orthopedist himself, he has used his position to stand up for the interest of physicians — and especially high-priced specialists — at the expense of patients and tax payers. Here is more information from STAT about why he was a poor choice.

Senate Republicans voted unanimously to confirm him. Please write to your Republican senators and express your concern.

Dear Senator _____________,

I am writing to express my disappointment at your vote in favor of Tom Price to be Secretary of Health and Human Services. Aside from serious ethics issues during his tenure in the House of Representatives, Price is a strong advocate not of the best interests of patients or taxpayers, but of doctors’ bottom line. He is on record opposing almost all of the cost control measures introduced by the Affordable Care Act, including bundled payments for cardiac and joint surgeries, which have demonstrably brought down medical costs, saving Medicare money. And he is in opposition to provisions in the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) intended to move doctors away from a fee-for-service model, and provisions that tie doctors’ payments to quality metrics.

As an orthopedist himself, Tom Price should know that bundled payments, especially, have been effective at controlling costs without sacrificing quality. This suggests that his motive in opposing them is more about enriching himself and his orthopedist colleagues than acting in the interests of patients or the nation at large.

Now that Tom Price has been confirmed, I would urge you to oppose proposals that would undo Obama-era health care cost control measures. Since the ACA, we have seen health care inflation begin to come into line with inflation in the economy at large. And continuing that trend can only be beneficial to those in need of medical services, and to those of us who fund the nation’s health care system.

Best,

_________________