Newt Gingrich Named #6 Most Influential Person in Healthcare

From Newt 2012:

Atlanta, GA -- Modern Healthcare has named Newt Gingrich #6 on their list of most influential people in healthcare. No other Republican presidential candidate is included in their list of 100.

“Newt Gingrich has spent more time and energy developing and popularizing free market healthcare solutions that would save lives and save money than all the other candidates combined” remarked Dr. Michael Burgess, Republican Congressman from the 26th district of Texas.

“As Republicans look for the right candidate to repeal and replace Obamacare, Modern Healthcare has reminded voters that Newt Gingrich’s status as an expert ant thought leader in health care policy is unmatched by any other candidate in the field,” added Burgess.

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As a candidate, Newt is calling for the creation of a 21st-century Food and Drug Administration that shortens the time it takes private companies to deliver new cures and treatments to the patient. Gingrich cites the current FDA’s costly requirements as obstacles in gaining approval for new drugs and medical devices.

“Major reform at the FDA will help firms get products from the research laboratory to the marketplace faster,” Gingrich said. "The current FDA model takes too long, allows people to die in the interim, raises the costs so dramatically that small start-ups couldn't possibly bring new ideas to the table and is in effect driving jobs overseas."

Gingrich also points to electronic medical records as another way to improve health. "Faster access to information in real time allows doctors to make better decisions.”

Most notable, Gingrich wants to invest more in creating public-private partnerships to fund brain science and research with the goal of finding cures for costly diseases like Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s. Gingrich notes that delaying the onset of Alzheimer's by just five years would save $10 trillion in public and private costs by 2050.

Read further about Newt Gingrich’s “Patient Power” plan to improve healthcare quality, lower costs, and insure every American without mandates at http://www.newt.org/solutions/healthcare.

Newt Gingrich Healthcare Record

In 2003, Newt founded the Center for Health Transformation to develop free market healthcare reforms to foster a 21st Century System of health and healthcare that is centered on the individual, prevention focused, knowledge intense and innovation rich. Newt also served as the Co-Chairman of the National Commission for Quality Long-term Care and the independent congressional Alzheimer’s Disease Study Group.

As Speaker of the House, Gingrich’s leadership helped save Medicare from bankruptcy, prompted FDA reform to help the seriously ill and initiated a new focus on research, prevention, and wellness. His contributions have been so great that the American Diabetes Association awarded him their highest non-medical award and the March of Dimes named him their 1995 Citizen of the Year.

Human Events: "Why Newt Gingrich Will Be a Formidable Contender"

Tony Lee, who is covering the 2012 Presidential election for the conservative newspaper Human Events, wrote an article touting Newt's "politics, policy, and publicity."

"Last week, Newt Gingrich showed why he will be a more than formidable candidate," Lee wrote. "During a series of events, he displayed how he can combine politics, policy, and publicity to leverage his ideas and brand."

Lee then recaps Newt's week. It started with a tele-townhall with Tea Party groups in which "Gingrich showed his depth and range on a variety of issues ranging from immigration, to allowing people to opt-in to a flat tax rate, to criticizing President Obama for seemingly caring more about offshore drilling in Brazil than in America."

Then he called on George Washington University to invite Paul Ryan to give a response to President Obama's speech in which he attacked Ryan after inviting the Wisconsin Republican to it.

Newt told CNBC host Larry Kudlow that he would not reappoint Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

In front of Tea Party groups in Charleston, South Carolina, Newt ran through what his energy policy would look like:

1) Replace the Environmental Protection Agency, which has become a job-killing regulatory engine of higher energy prices, with an Environmental Solutions Agency that would work cooperatively with local government and industry to achieve better environmental outcomes while considering the impact of federal environmental policies on job creation and the cost of energy.

2) End the ban on oil shale development in the American West, where we have three times the amount oil as Saudi Arabia.

3) Give coastal states federal royalty revenue sharing so that state’s budgets directly benefits from offshore development.

4) Enact a loser-pays law to force the losers in environmental lawsuits to pay all legal costs for the prevailing side, which will reduce frivolous lawsuits that are employed simply to stop energy production.

5) Finance cleaner energy research and projects with new oil and gas royalties.

6) Appoint a commission of engineers and scientists, not politicians, to study the damaged nuclear reactor in Japan and determine if any changes need to be made to US nuclear power standards.

Gingrich wrapped up his week at the Brookings Institution ,at which he gave a detailed speech about health care policy.

Lee concludes:

When on his A-game, Gingrich is an intellectual force and heavyweight who knows how to market his ideas in a compelling way that is understandable by the general public. Gingrich is also savvy and nimble in framing how his ideas can be solutions for contemporary problems that the country faces at the moment.

The more the 2012 contest is focused on wonkish policy, Gingrich will have more of a homecourt advantage and the better off he will be.

Lee's point about Newt being able to market his ideas is an important one. He not only is the best ideas man in the party; he also is the one who comes up with such slogans as "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less."