A new campaign ad is putting Sen. Roger Marshall’s history of aggressive medical-debt collection back in the spotlight.
The ad features former patient Meischa Zimmerman, who says police arrested her in 2011 after she missed a $50 payment to Marshall. She was eight months pregnant and had a two-year-old daughter at home.
“One evening, I see [police] lights, I open the door, and it’s a police officer,” Zimmerman says. “They arrested me because I didn’t make a $50 payment to Roger Marshall.”
“I was eight months pregnant,” she continued. “And I said, ‘Please do not handcuff me in front of my two-year-old daughter.’”
Marshall’s medical practice sued more than 700 patients over unpaid bills, and at least 81 were arrested after failing to appear in court. Zimmerman owed $3,596 for a C-section and had agreed to a $50 monthly payment plan, but said she sometimes had to choose between paying the bill and keeping her electricity on.
“I had to choose whether I’d pay my electricity or pay $50 to a doctor who didn’t need it,” she told The New York Times.
To top it off, Marshall was also charging her 18% interest on the outstanding debt.
The ad argues that Marshall profited from a health care system that punished low-income patients for medical debt. As we reported earlier this month, Marshall, now seeking reelection to the Senate, faces renewed scrutiny over his history of aggressively pursuing patients for medical debt. And this new ad is going to end his career in politics. Or, at least it should.
Just a reminder that the Kansas Republican is a staunchly anti-abortion legislator. Kansans, take out the trash.
