(Basking Ridge, NJ) Tom Kean Jr. doesn’t take a stand often but when he does, it is life threatening for New Jerseyans. Last week, Kean Jr. came out against the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), legislation to lower the price of prescription drugs, cap out of pocket drug costs for seniors, and extend subsidies that are saving New Jersey families hundreds of dollars a month on health insurance. 77% of New Jerseyans support letting Medicare negotiate lower drug costs with pharmaceutical companies, and 81% say that they will support candidates who make reducing out of pocket health care costs their top priority. After three failed runs for Congress, Tom Kean Jr. remains as out of step with New Jersey as he’s ever been. Here’s a peek at Tom Kean Jr.’s record:
- 2003: Voted against funding a program that would help seniors and disapbled patients save on prescription drugs.
- 2009: Voted against urging Congress to implement universal health insurance coverage.
- 2010: Voted in favor of a federal budget that caused 50,000 low income adults to lose access tohealthcare.
- 2012: Voted against supporting Medicaid expansion.
- 2012: Voted twice against creating a state exchange – now utilized by hundreds of thousands ofNew Jerseyans – under the Affordable Care Act.
- 2013: Voted against Medicaid expansion.
- 2013: Voted against establishing a public awareness campaign about the New Jersey healthcareexchange.
- 2013: Voted against establishing a legislative task force on healthcare exchangeimplementation.
- 2018: Voted against stabilizing premiums in the New Jersey health insurance market.
- 2018: Voted against protecting consumers from surprise medical bills. Kean Jr. is a significant shareholder in several health insurance and pharmaceutical companies including the country’s biggest insurer, UnitedHealth Group, and has taken over $1.1 million in campaign contributions from pharmaceutical companies alone. During his two decades in Trenton, Kean Jr. repeatedly voted against lowering health care costs for middle class families
- 2019: Voted against authorizing a state-based exchange for certain insurance plans.
- 2020: Voted against codifying provisions of the ACA that would protect coverage of prescriptiondrugs, prenatal care and chemotherapy.
- 2020: Voted against funding subsidies for low- and middle-income New Jerseyans, which wouldsave families of four an average of $2,256 per year.
- 2020: Opposed efforts to lower the costs of prescription drugs because it would “literally get ridof the biotech industry and the pharma industry in New Jersey.”
Meanwhile, Tom Malinowski kept his promise to make health insurance coverage more affordable to middle-class New Jerseyans, to ban surprise medical bills, and to lower the cost of prescription drugs. He does not take a penny in campaign contributions from corporate PACS of any kind.
“Tom Kean Jr. showed us in Trenton that protecting pharmaceutical and insurance company profits is more important to him than protecting New Jerseyans from skyrocketing healthcare costs, and he’d do the same in Washington,” said Malinowski. “I’ve delivered the cost-saving solutions that New Jersey voters have demanded, and I believe that if pharmaceutical companies can afford to spend billions of dollars on stock buybacks and marketing, they can afford to be part of those solutions.”