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Dear Editor:
Among the negative ads produced by opponents of Victoria Spartz, some say she will be a “threat to your health care” if elected to Congress. As physicians, we think voters should know nothing could be further from the truth. Her record as a State Senator proves it.
In 2019, she was instrumental in passing a law that guarantees Indiana residents cannot be denied health insurance on the basis of their pre-existing conditions. This was supported by her fellow legislators in both parties. She also met with 32 healthcare organizations, including ours, to learn more about how healthcare functions. Out of these meetings came her strong support for Medicare for seniors and our own Healthy Indiana Medicaid Plan for low-income citizens. In the following legislative session, Victoria was instrumental in introducing an Indiana Senate bill that addressed many of the problems identified during her extensive conversations with the real people working in healthcare.
In 2020, she and other legislators including State Representative Donna Schaibley worked aggressively to make price transparency for elective healthcare services the law in Indiana. Patients now have the right to ask their provider for a fair estimate of the bill before undergoing a procedure, and can shop around for a better price if they choose. No longer should patients be surprised by a medical bill.
Most recently, while we in healthcare were digging out from the ravages of COVID, a group of state senators including Senator Spartz worked with Governor Holcomb to allow medical facilities to resume surgeries and procedures after the initial shutdown. In cooperation with hospitals statewide and the Indiana Hospital Association, important life-saving procedures were performed once again, with precautions to keep medical workers and patients safe. Indiana was one of the first states to resume providing these necessary treatments.
Senator Spartz is a free-market person and feels that there are too many government-created obstacles in the way of the patient-physician relationship. Born in Ukraine, she experienced firsthand the many negative aspects of a fully socialized, single-payer, poorly funded health care system, including how it contributed to the death of her father at age 41. That deeply personal experience will make hers a powerful voice challenging the efforts by Democrats in Congress to create a single-payer system here.
She has a great interest in healthcare, has been effective in passing bills that address problems in healthcare, and is a tireless worker. She has accomplished much at the state level, on a wide range of issues, in a bipartisan manner which would serve her well in the United States Congress. She is an independent thinker and while in the Statehouse has at times voiced disagreement with not only the legislators across the aisle but also her fellow Republicans.
We are sorry to lose her as a state senator, but Victoria Spartz will be able to accomplish much more in Washington to benefit Hoosiers and our fellow Americans.
Rick Sasso MD
Indiana Spine Group
Carmel
Robert Hagen MD
Lafayette Orthopaedic Clinic
Lafayette
Many moderate Republicans, Democrats and Independent voters worry that Spartz’s views and actions are extreme. Here are a few healthcare actions omitted from the doctors’ letter: Spartz authored a bill to remove child-abuse prevention and anti-bullying training for teachers. She voted against expanding mental health services for students. Spartz voted twice against protecting children with pre-existing conditions. She voted against helping people with pre-existing conditions if they had short-term insurance. She pushed to make changes in Medicaid that would have devastated many Hoosiers but was luckily stopped in a bipartisan manner. Public safety-wise, she wanted to give guns to teachers and thought it was funny to order AK-47s online. She has not acted in a bipartisan manner in Indiana and would not fairly or honestly represent the majority of people in District 5. We need less extreme, more moderate representation, now more than ever.
Bipartisan Spartz is an oxymoron. She is totally partisan, and is joined at the hip to Donald Trump. Christina Hale is wonderfully bipartisan. She works across the aisle to benefit all of us. Please vote early, and vote for Hale.