Who says Republicans have no ideas about healthcare?
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One thing about the 21st century Republican Party, there’s absolutely nothing subtle involved:
It was Easter weekend in 2007 when a police car pulled up to Joe Vasquez’s home in rural Kansas.
A doctor had filed a lawsuit against him and his wife over an unpaid $4,561 bill from her emergency hysterectomy three years earlier. They had missed a court date, and the doctor’s lawyers asked the court to issue an arrest warrant.
The police took the couple into custody as their grandchildren prepared for an egg hunt, Mr. Vasquez said. They spent two days in jail before their son could borrow the money to post bond.
“We had no money to pay,” said Mr. Vasquez, now 68. At the time, his wife was working at a manufacturing plant and he was on disability, he said.
The doctor who sued the couple was Roger Marshall, now a senator from Kansas. Mr. Marshall, a Republican who is seeking re-election this fall, filed lawsuits against more than 700 patients with outstanding bills during his decades-long career as an obstetrician-gynecologist, according to a New York Times analysis of Kansas court records.
Patients were arrested in 81 of those cases for missing court dates, the record show. In an additional 13 lawsuits, Mr. Marshall’s lawyers sought warrants but it is unclear whether an arrest occurred.
They also garnished patients’ paychecks and bank accounts. They routinely charged patients an 18 percent annual interest rate.
The unpaid bills ranged from several thousand dollars to as little as $101. About half the lawsuits were filed under Mr. Marshall’s name and the rest by Heartland Regional OBGYN, the medical practice he solely owned from 1998 to 2012 and then co-owned with another doctor from 2013 to 2019.
Some facing lawsuits were new mothers with outstanding bills from their deliveries. Most lived in Barton County, a rural area with above-average uninsured and poverty rates. Some patients the Times spoke with lacked insurance; others had health coverage but were responsible for part of their bill.
One can point out that this is in part a reflection of structural conditions — although this level of enforcement is obviously necessary — but that’s not really a defense when a major part of your work as a senator is to make these structural conditions worse. Frankly, I’m beginning to wonder if the post-Dobbs Republican pivot to maternal healthcare is actually going to happen.
Rick Scott probably best exemplifies MAGA healthcare principles, but Marshall is now at least a close second.
