ICYMI: GOP Senator Roger Marshall “Facing Backlash” for “Extreme,” “Predatory,”& “Unbelievably Aggressive” Practices

Adam Hamilton on MS NOW’s Morning Joe: “And the real issue here, to me, is not just what Roger Marshall chose to do […] it’s also the fact that this last year, when he could have made sure that people who were vulnerable had health insurance, he voted not to”

Former Kansas Governor and U.S. Secretary of Health & Human Services Kathleen Sebelius: “This is a guy who then gets elected to Congress coming out of this very personal situation of seeing how many people are struggling to pay their medical bills and votes over and over and over again to take away health insurance from his constituents” 

Kansas GOP Senate candidate Roger Marshall is under fire and “facing backlash” for his “extreme” and “predatory” practices as a doctor after a New York Times report found that Marshall filed more than 700 lawsuits against patients – many of whom were uninsured new mothers – who struggled to pay for the services he provided as an OB-GYN. 

U.S. Senate candidate Reverend Adam Hamilton joined MS NOW’s Morning Joe and The Last Word to slam Marshall for his “unbelievably aggressive” practices that resulted in 81 arrests and drove some Kansans to financial ruin, and how Marshall has voted “over and over and over again to take away health insurance from his constituents” – including just last year when he took the “unfathomable” vote to strip ACA tax credits and Medicaid coverage from Kansans and spiked their health care costs.

MS NOW: Senate Nominee Adam Hamilton (D-KS) Joins Morning Joe

• MS NOW’s MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Republican Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas is facing backlash this morning after a New York Times report revealed he filed hundreds of debt collection lawsuits against former patients during his time as an OB-GYN. Dozens were later arrested for missing court dates. 
• MS NOW’s JOE SCARBOROUGH: Marshall’s Democratic challenger, U.S. Senate nominee Reverend Adam Hamilton’s criticizing the Senator for his practices, writing on social media, “Medical bills should not ruin lives. We must do better than this.” And Adam Hamilton joins us now. Reverend, I didn’t know there were still debtors’ prisons in America, but apparently there is in Kansas when Roger Marshall is your doctor.
• Kansas Senate Candidate ADAM HAMILTON: When you find vulnerable people, you’re treating them; they can’t pay, you don’t lock them up. You don’t continue to harass them. You don’t charge them 18% interest rates. It’s just not okay. And you guys know this is a much bigger issue across America. There are more than 300,000 who filed bankruptcy last year, citing medical debt as a part of the reason for their bankruptcies. People are struggling. 
• And the real issue here, to me, is not just what Roger Marshall chose to do, which reflects something about who he is and his character, I think. But it’s also the fact that this last year, when he could have made sure that people who were vulnerable had health insurance, he voted not to include the subsidies into what they call the “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” and strip 31,000 to 36,000 Kansans of their health insurance. People couldn’t afford to pay anymore without the subsidies. And another 15,000 Kansans who lost Medicaid because of the bill, which took $1 trillion out of Medicaid over a ten-year period of time.
• So it’s, you know, seemingly a hard heart towards people that were his own patients. And then a hard heart when it comes to the people in his own state who are struggling to pay for health insurance.
• We have to do better. This was a conscious decision Roger Marshall and others made in his party to just ignore these – and again, in Kansas, about 36,000 people so far, probably more. And how do you do that? How do you, how do you ignore that?

MS NOW: GOP Roger Marshall Had 81 Former Patients Arrested Over Unpaid Bills

• MS NOW’s LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: Today, The New York Times reported this about Kansas Republican Senator Roger Marshall: “Mr. Marshall, a Republican who is seeking reelection 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.”
• HAMILTON: Well, it’s unfathomable, really. I read the story this morning as well. And the idea that a physician would have lawsuits filed against 700 people who were low-income people struggling to pay their bills. And again, as you said, as low as $100 was the least amount somebody owed. And he sued them.
• What’s more unfathomable to me is the fact that this is the same Senator who last year voted to take health care away from 36,000 people by no longer including the subsidies. So these are people who are working people struggling; you take the subsidies away. And then 15,000 people who lost their Medicaid benefits.
• So, here’s a man who sued people and had some of them arrested in order to, you know, retrieve their payments, and then took away the capacity for people to have health insurance who were low-income people. It just, you look at this and say, “Really, you know, we have to do better than this.” This is just not who we are as Kansans. It’s not who we are as Americans. We’ve got to do better.

Washington Post: Sen. Roger Marshall’s challenger in Kansas criticizes him for suing patients

• Adam Hamilton, a Democrat challenging Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas), criticized the incumbent Tuesday over a report that he sued hundreds of patients over unpaid bills during his decades as an obstetrician-gynecologist.
• The New York Times reported that Marshall had sued more than 700 patients, 81 of whom were arrested for missing court dates.
• “In Washington, Roger Marshall votes to strip healthcare and raise costs,” Hamilton wrote on X. “In Kansas, he sued more than 700 patients who couldn’t afford the bill. Dozens were handcuffed and jailed.”

Kansas City Star: Sen. Marshall faces backlash over ‘unbelievably aggressive’ lawsuits against patients

• Marshall, now Kansas’ junior Republican U.S. senator, spent more than 25 years as an OBGYN, sharing in families’ happiest and most challenging moments.
• He also aggressively pursued hundreds of former patients over unpaid medical bills, according to a new bombshell report published by The New York Times.
• The investigation found that Marshall sued more than 700 patients, leading to at least 81 arrests when patients missed court dates. Marshall charged an 18% annual interest rate on unpaid bills and in some cases garnished patients’ wages and bank accounts, The Times reported.
• Former Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a Democrat who went on to serve as secretary of Health and Human Services in the Obama administration, said she was “shocked and disappointed” to learn about Marshall’s “unbelievably aggressive practice of going after people who just had a baby or fell on hard times.”
• In Washington, Marshall has repeatedly voted to repeal or scale back the Affordable Care Act. The ACA, also commonly known as “Obamacare,” has expanded health insurance coverage for Americans in the 16 years since it became federal law.
• “Roger Marshall must explain to Kansans why he had patients arrested and jailed over tiny debts before going to Congress to vote to take away Kansans’ health coverage,” said Tyson Brody, a spokesperson for the Rev. Adam Hamilton, the Democratic nominee challenging Marshall for his seat in November.
• Healthcare expenses remain the number-one cause of bankruptcies in the U.S.
• Sebelius, who led the federal agency responsible for the nation’s public health and social services during the rollout of the ACA, said Marshall’s litigation tactics against hundreds of patients represents “a great aberration of ‘do no harm,’ which is the basic Hippocratic Oath that doctors take.”
• “This is a guy who then gets elected to Congress coming out of this very personal situation of seeing how many people are struggling to pay their medical bills and votes over and over and over again to take away health insurance from his constituents,” Sebelius said.
• Families can’t predict when a medical emergency will occur or what complications a pregnancy might entail, Sebelius said.
• “The worst of all words is to have a tragedy followed then by somebody pursuing you — up to and including putting you in jail,” she said.