Doctors’ PAC Targets Pro-Obamacare Incumbents

Published January 13, 2015

Beleaguered members of Congress who supported Obamacare and squeaked by in the recent election now have a new nemesis, a PAC of doctors, surgeons, and nurses demanding the lawmakers change their ways.

Arizona surgeon Dr. Jeffrey Singer formed Our Patients First PAC in September after watching while many of his patient’s policies were canceled and others found he wasn’t in their networks. Three were enrolled in Medicaid by default because their policies were deemed “not ACA compliant” under the terms of the Affordable Care Act.

“A lot of the Democrats in Congress have gotten the message in this past election of people’s unhappiness with Obamacare,” Singer said. “The pain of the Affordable Care Act is just going to get worse, not better.”

Ads Focus on Gruber

Our Patients First now has representatives in 15 states, with hopes of expanding significantly next year. It has been sponsoring radio and television ads in congressional districts where incumbents won by fewer than 10,000 votes and could be vulnerable in the next election.

The ads discuss the controversy surrounding Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber, who was caught on video calling Americans who backed the reform “stupid” and saying legislators purposely hid details in the massive bill or no one would have supported it.

“Gruber is actually guilty of candor, but he said it in an offensive way,” Singer said. “He was saying that the general public is too dumb to know what’s good for them, so we have to disguise what we are doing because if they knew, they wouldn’t want it.”

“The ACA is not sustainable.” Singer said.  “We want to play a role in influencing the agenda to make sure patients are first.”

Our Patients First ran a television ad the weekend of Dec. 12 in Iowa, one of the key states in the 2016 presidential nomination process, and radio ads in Arizona, California, Florida, Nebraska, and New York.

“These districts all have Democratic incumbents who were just narrowly reelected,” Singer said. “We are letting them know that so many of their colleagues are packing up and leaving because they supported Obamacare. They better fix it, because we are watching.”

Tori Richards ([email protected]) writes for Watchdog.org, where an earlier version of this story first appeared. Reprinted with permission.