New reporting about a Republican senator's medical practice – and lawsuits against patients who couldn't afford to pay – sparked outrage.
Sen. Roger Marshall, the Kansas Republican who helped lead House Republicans' 2017 push to repeal the Affordable Care Act, spent decades building his medical career and personal wealth in part by suing patients who could not afford to pay their bills, according to a New York Times analysis of court records.
The senator practiced as an obstetrician-gynecologist before entering politics and co-founded a Great Bend surgical center that grew into a full-service hospital generating tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue, and his net worth is now estimated between $3 million and $9.8 million.
The Times found Marshall and his practice filed lawsuits against more than 700 patients with unpaid bills, some as small as $101, that resulted in at least 81 arrests for missed court appearances. Patients' wages and bank accounts were garnished, and Marshall's firm charged an 18 percent annual interest rate on outstanding balances.
The lawsuits didn't stop once Marshall reached Washington, which means a sitting member of the U.S. House held a financial interest in litigation against patients even as he began shaping national health policy.
"The Republican senator running for re-election in Kansas was running a hybrid debtor’s jail operation/OBGYN practice it sounds like," observed podcaster Noah Kulman.
"Seems like a nice guy," snorted writer and podcaster Matthew Yglesias.
"Oh my God," gasped Democratic operative Tyson Brody, quoting from the report: "One, whom Mr. Marshall sued in 2004 for $1,200, asked that she not be held liable for care she received 'for me and my twins (who I lost).' She was still found responsible for the bill."
"Roger Marshall is going to lose," predicted Mark McDevitt.
"Natural inclination will be to say that this is an unfair hit piece, that this is just what Doctors do," opined law professor Ben Yelin. "That they have a right to collect unpaid bills. But Kliff is a great reporter, and shows here how unusual Marshall's actions where: requesting arrest warrants, wage garnishment etc. It's especially cruel since Marshall was the only OBGYN in a very rural area, he could take advantage of people's desperation."
"Marshall has expressed interest in becoming HELP chair now that Bill Cassidy is departing Congress," noted journalist Kay Steiger.
"This is a bombshell. Roger Marshall is not fit to be a U.S. Senator," denounced debt expert Mike Pierce. "It's also a case study in how our broken healthcare system weaponizes debt against people who are just trying to survive."
"Roger Marshall isn't just a creepy anti-choice OBGYN (and it's really weird he's dedicated his life to touching women and girls but not believing they have rights)," criticized Democratic operative Alexandra De Luca. "He sues postpartum women for the medical debt he's done nothing as a senator to bring down. Demonic s---."