Sally Pipes Nominated for Prestigious Bob Williams Award

Dear Friend of PRI:

We have some exciting news to share with you!

PRI President, CEO, and Thomas W. Smith Fellow in Health Care Policy Sally C. Pipes has been nominated for a prestigious Bob Williams Award by State Policy Network in the “Biggest Win for Freedom” category.

The Bob Williams Awards will be handed out at the upcoming State Policy Network Annual Meeting in Atlanta in September. If you are a registered attendee of the SPN Annual Meeting, you can cast your vote for Sally here, now through August 5.

Sally has been singled-out for her work this year in stopping the California single-payer legislation, Assembly Bill 1400.

Through media interviews, op-eds, meetings with lawmakers, speeches and debate, she redoubled her efforts to educate Californians about what a “Medicare for All” style health care scheme that outlaws private health insurance would mean . . . higher costs, reduced access, fewer choices, less innovation, increased taxes, massive spending, and longer waits.

Thankfully, lawmakers listened to Sally and pulled the plug on AB 1400 in January, citing a lack of public support.

AB 1400’s defeat is important not only for California, but in stopping the push for single-payer nationwide. If California had enacted single-payer legislation, the dominoes would have surely fallen toward “Medicare for All” in other states.

But we’re not surprised that Sally secured this “Biggest Win for Freedom.”

Here’s what University of Massachusetts, Amherst professor Gerald Friedman – one of America’s top proponents of single-payer health care and one of Sally’s frequent debate sparring partners – said of Sally: “Brilliantly done, as usual. Damn: I wish that I wrote so clearly and argued so well!”

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

Please join all of us at PRI in congratulating Sally for this great national recognition, and in crossing our fingers that she brings home the trophy in September!

Sincerely,

Ben Smithwick
Vice President, Development

P.S. PRI’s success on this issue would not be possible thanks to the generosity of our supporters like you. And thanks to your support, we’ll be ready to push back with the fact when Sacramento progressives try again next year.