1. “The most important issue is our national and global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our goal as a nation must be to navigate through all of the challenges posed by the pandemic as quickly and safely as possible. We must rely on the evolving medical and public health science to guide our decisions and actions on the health care, public health, and economic arenas.”
2. “Without a doubt, the issue that I am most passionate about is health care and health care system improvement. Our health care system still has too many people fall through gaps in care, is too difficult for patients to navigate, and too expensive for the nation. We have to protect people by increasing access to care, lowering the high costs of prescription drugs, and improving the quality of care we deliver.”
3. “From my position here in the Congress, I support many of the economic programs that have been created or proposed to support physician practices during the pandemic, including the Provider Relief Fund, small business grants, and hazard pay for frontline health care providers. I also strongly believe that physicians deserve a fair legislative solution on the surprise medical billing issue and that this is definitely the wrong time for a ‘bad’ solution. This is also the time for insurance companies be held accountable to meet their required medical loss ratio requirements for spending on health care.”

Hiral Tipirneni, MD (D, candidate AZ-6)

Dr. Tipirneni came to America from India with her family at the age of three. She was raised in a suburb of Cleveland.

Following a childhood illness, Dr. Tipirneni was inspired to learn more about medicine, and after graduating from public school, she eventually earned her medical degree through an accelerated, competitive program at Northeast Ohio Medical University. After serving as chief resident of the University of Michigan’s emergency medicine program, Dr. Tipirneni and her family moved to Arizona, where she worked in emergency departments at the Maricopa County Medical Center, Banner Thunderbird, and Abrazo Arrowhead hospitals—all while raising three children in the Arrowhead community.

After losing her mother and nephew to cancer, Dr. Tipirneni directed her passion and problem-solving skills to evaluating and directing funding for cutting-edge cancer research. She now leads teams of researchers, clinicians, and patient advocates in the fight to treat and cure breast cancer, prostate cancer, and childhood leukemia.

1. “The loss of value and respect for science and data, because that affects how we address socioeconomic inequity and injustice. Science has become demonized and politicized, which has led to [us] poorly responding to the pandemic.”
2. “No surprise…it’s health care. We need to promote policies that create healthy families, healthy communities, and a healthy nation. Good public policies must address the social determinants of health including mental illness, addiction, housing, and food security.”
3. “We need to rethink our reimbursement strategies to clinicians toward a system that is based more on value and less on volume of services and procedures performed. The federal government must enforce medical loss ratio requirements that insurers are required to meet.”