Former Senator, Statesman, and our Board Member Who Stood For Price Transparency

March 28, 2020 – In the loss early this morning of Dr. Tom Coburn, former U.S. Sen. from Oklahoma, America lost an impassioned leader, advocate and champion for fiscal fairness and transparency in health care.  

“Though he is gone, his efforts live on and we will all be better for his legacy,” said close friend and colleague Cynthia A. Fisher, founder of PatientRightsAdvocate.org, an organization for which Dr. Coburn served on the board. 

Dr. Coburn died after a long fight with prostate cancer at the age of 72, The Oklahoman reported.

“Dr. Coburn was not only a dear friend, but also a mentor and an inspiration,” said Fisher, who worked closely with the physician legislator over the past several years to raise awareness among leaders in the White House Administration of the need for price transparency in health care. Their efforts were often covered by the Wall Street Journal and other major media. 

Last June, Dr. Coburn joined Fisher in spearheading a letter signed by nearly 4,000 doctors supporting transparency, and hand carried the letter to the White House and to other key officials in the Administration. Later that month, on June 24, President Trump signed the Executive Order to improve price and quality transparency in health care.

Born Thomas Allen Coburn in 1948, Coburn grew up in Muskogee, Okla., and attended the University of Oklahoma Medical School. A family physician, he ran for U.S. House of Representatives, where he served from 1995 to 2001. He later served in the Senate from 2005 to 2015. 

After leaving Congress, “he never stopped fighting for what he believed in,” said Fisher.

“Our sympathies are with Tom’s wife of more than 50 years, Carolyn, their family,” said Fisher. 

“Though we’ve lost a magnificent advocate, we carry Tom’s torch,” she said. “We will continue to light the way for all Americans to have hidden health-care prices out in the sunlight, so we all can shop for health care by comparing prices and quality. That was his mission, and his efforts will not be in vain.”

TOM COBURN: HERE'S WHY PRICE TRANSPARENCY CAN REVOLUTIONIZE HEALTH CARE

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