Senate candidate Jon Ossoff on what he would do on ‘day one,’ Medicare and COVID-19
Democrat senate candidate Jon Ossoff, running against incumbent Sen. David Perdue, recently spoke with McClatchy about the race, his policy priorities and his opponent.
Ossoff, a former investigative journalist and media executive, has made improving health care for Georgians a focal point of his campaign.
“Rural health care will be my highest priority in the US Senate,” Ossoff said. “In the last 10 years, nine hospitals in rural Georgia have closed. Sen. David Perdue -- our federal representative in the senate -- supports blocking Medicaid expansion for Georgia. Georgia taxpayers are already paying for Medicaid. He thinks it should go to other states. I think it should come to Georgia to make health care more affordable for families here and to sustain our rural hospitals.”
A recent study found that states with expanded Medicaid are less likely to face hospital closures. Nearly half of Georgia’s 67 rural hospitals are considered vulnerable or at-risk for closure.
“[Middle Georgia] counties have suffered from the refusal of Georgia politicians like David Perdue to expand Medicaid,” Ossoff said, adding that counties in the rural areas “have some of the worst health outcomes in the state. We need to invest in building new clinics and strengthening and sustaining our rural hospitals.”
Citizens United
Ossoff also said that overturning the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC, which allowed for more corporate dollars in political campaigns and affirmed the legal basis for large political action committees, so-called Super PACs, is a top priority.
“On Day One, I will co-sponsor the constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United decision, and get secret money out of politics,” he said.
To Ossoff, the Citizens United decision and protecting health care go hand-in-hand.
“Citizens United is one of the reasons that prescription drugs are so expensive and that health insurance companies are allowed to rip us off,” he said, noting the ruling allows companies to spend money on politics in “unlimited amounts and in secret. One of the biggest threats to our health and the affordability of health care is corruption. “That’s why politicians like David Perdue work for the insurance companies instead of Georgia families, and it’s why I think we need to overturn the Citizens United decision and get dark money out of politics.”
The pandemic
Ossoff also emphasized the coronavirus pandemic in the interview, calling it an “an acute crisis.”
“We’re far from out of the woods in this pandemic, this disease that’s taken nearly a quarter of a million American lives and forced millions of Georgians to file jobless claims,” Ossoff said. “We need to empower medical experts, public health experts to lead a strong public health policy to control this virus. And we need to be providing more financial and economic support for working families and small businesses to jumpstart our economy.”
Polling numbers
Recent polls show a virtual tie between Ossoff and Perdue, but Ossoff is confident in his campaign’s appeal to voters across Georgia. His campaign raised $21 million in the third quarter and Ossoff attributes his campaign’s strength to his volunteers.
“The most important support for my campaign is our incredible more than 14,000 volunteers who are working to get out the vote aggressively,” Ossoff said. “The coalition that we’ve built across Georgia is rural, suburban, and urban. It’s Black, white, Latino, and Asian because my agenda was just to make healthcare affordable, to invest in our infrastructure, and to get corporate money out of politics is appealing to people across the political spectrum.”
Zoe Katz is an Election SOS fellow covering the 2020 election for the Macon Telegraph. She is a Georgia-based writer and recent graduate of Agnes Scott College.
This story was originally published October 27, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Senate candidate Jon Ossoff on what he would do on ‘day one,’ Medicare and COVID-19."