GOP Senator Reportedly Sued Hundreds of Patients for Unpaid Bills During Medical Career

Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) — who spent more than 25 years as a physician before entering politics — pursued nearly 1,000 patients for unpaid medical debts so relentlessly that dozens were arrested and others had their pay garnished.

The New York Times poured over Kansas court records and found Marshall, 66, sued more than 700 patients, sometimes for bills as small as $101. Of those sued, 81 were arrested, according to the report.

Marshall worked as an obstetrician-gynecologist and boasts on a campaign website of “a deep appreciation and passion for the sanctity of life and an intimate understanding of the healthcare system.”

One couple told The Times they were arrested in 2007 over Easter weekend as they prepared to do an Easter egg hunt with their grandkids after Marshall pursued a $4,561 bill from the wife’s emergency hysterectomy.

“We had no money to pay,” the husband, Joe Vasquez, told the outlet, noting he had been on disability and his wife worked at a manufacturing plant.

They spent two days in jail before relatives scraped together bail money, the couple told The Times.

Like others Marshall chased for payment, the couple had missed a court date in the case, according to the report.

Marshall, first elected to Congress in 2016, has a net worth of between $3 million and 9.8 million, according to The Times, which cited financial disclosures.

Many of those sued were in rural Barton County, about four hours west of Kansas City, which has a population of less than 25,000 people and, as The Times noted, above-average poverty rates.

One mom said her $3,596 debt from an emergency Cesarean section swelled to more than $7,000 and that she was arrested in front of her 2-year-old when she missed a court date.

“I asked them quietly: Can you not handcuff me in front of my daughter?” Meischa Zimmerman recalled asking the officers, according to The Times. “I explained to my daughter I was going for a ride.”

Zimmerman, who claimed she wasn’t given notice of missed court dates beforehand, was eight months pregnant at the time of her first arrest in the non-payment case.

She signed up for a $50 monthly payment plan but couldn’t keep up.

“I had to choose whether I’d pay my electricity or pay $50 to a doctor who didn’t need it,” she told the outlet.

A rep for Marshall noted that warrants stem from the court system, not physicians themselves:

In response to detailed questions from the Times, a spokeswoman for Mr. Marshall said that he spent decades caring for patients regardless of their ability to pay.

“Judges issue warrants when people repeatedly miss court dates, not doctors,” the spokeswoman, Payton Fuller, wrote in a statement.

Fuller continued biting back at The Times, insisting the billing practices were not unusual and adding, “Sixty days before an election, The New York Times has decided that a rural doctor keeping the hospital’s lights on is some kind of scandal. Kansans know better.”

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