Under the leadership of Sally Pipes, the organization’s president, CEO and Thomas W. Smith Fellow in Health Care, PRI has become a leading voice on the perils of Obamacare and the folly of doubling down on its worst excesses in the form of a single payer system. Pipes speaks from authority in part because she is a naturalized U.S. citizen from Canada.
PRI’s Center for Health Care has been shaping the legislative process for many years by brainstorming with policymakers, meeting with legislators, and providing testimony before Congress and state legislatures. Pipes’ research on single-payer health care was cited in testimony presented at a U.S. House Rules Committee hearing in April 2019.
Providing Media Balance
A robust and ongoing media campaign forms the core of PRI’s educational outreach on health care. In the past 12 months, Pipes has been a guest on more than 70 radio and television programs, including an hour-long interview on “Life, Liberty, and Levin” on Fox News Channel, “Deep Dive” with host Steve Hilton on Fox Nation, and “The Evening Edit” with Elizabeth MacDonald on Fox Business.
In addition, Pipes steers the national conversation on health care policy through her weekly Fox News column and bi-weekly columns for Forbes and the Washington Examiner. Altogether, she published more than 400 op-eds (including reprints) in media publications nationwide.
Debate before a live audience has also been an effective tool for PRI. In September 2019, Pipes participated in front of a not-so-friendly audience in a high-profile, New York City debate entitled, “Replace Private Insurance with Medicare for All.” The audience selected Pipes and her debate partner, Nick Gillespie of Reason, as the winners for their argument that Medicare for All will leave everyone worse off.
In January, Pipes released her latest book, False Premise, False Promise: The Disastrous Reality of Medicare for All. The book exposes the many problems with the “Medicare for All” plans under consideration in Congress. It details the horrors of a single-payer system with heart-wrenching stories of patients suffering, and offers a workable vision for delivering the affordable, accessible, quality care Americans are looking for.
The book makes its debut in time for November, when voters will be choosing the next U.S. president and deciding who will lead Congress. Health care has been dominating candidate debates, with promises of lofty solutions such as “free health care.” PRI plans to stay focused on its core mission in health care, educating the public on the best way to improve quality and access and lower cost: the free market.
Tim Anaya ([email protected]) is senior director of communications at Pacific Research Institute.
