Save the Hip:

A Prevention-First Healthcare Agenda for America

“I was recently watching testimony from Senator Angus King of Maine, an Independent, and I was struck by how clearly he explained one of the biggest failures in American healthcare.”

He talked about something simple: an $11 bathmat and a grab bar.

If a modest safety improvement in the home can prevent a fall, save a hip, avoid surgery, and keep a senior independent, then CMS should be able to pay for that prevention.

But too often, it does not.

I was so impressed by the power of these small preventative ideas that I wrote Senator King a letter. And here it is.

The Honorable Angus S. King, Jr.
United States Senate
133 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator King,

As a physician, surgeon, and Republican endorsed candidate for Congress from Connecticut, I wanted to thank you for your comments regarding preventative healthcare and the importance of simple interventions such as bathmats and grab bars to prevent devastating hip fractures among seniors.

You highlighted something Washington often misses: small preventative investments can save enormous human and financial costs later.

A broken hip after a certain age can dramatically alter — and sometimes end — a person’s independence and quality of life. Yet our healthcare system routinely spends tens of thousands of dollars reacting to injuries while hesitating to fund the inexpensive preventative measures that could avoid them entirely.

That is backwards.

Your comments reinforced exactly why I am running for Congress as a physician: to reform the bureaucracy of healthcare legislation, improve outcomes for patients, and bring practical medical judgment into a system too often dominated by paperwork, politics, and outdated reimbursement rules.

There are simply not enough physicians in Congress. We need more people in Washington who understand healthcare not only as a budget line, but as a lived reality for patients, families, doctors, nurses, hospitals, and caregivers.

We need more prevention-focused thinking across CMS, HHS, and throughout the federal government. We must evaluate healthcare policy through long-term cost-benefit analysis and recognize that preserving mobility, independence, and dignity is not only compassionate policy — it is fiscally responsible policy.

As doctors know well, the best surgery is often the one that never becomes necessary.

I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to speak with you regarding my candidacy, my healthcare reform platform, and other healthcare initiatives informed by my decades-long medical career and public service, including serving as Past President of the New York County Medical Society.

Thank you again for your leadership and independent thinking on this important issue.

Respectfully,

Dr. Michael Goldstein
Republican Endorsed Candidate for Congress
Connecticut’s 4th Congressional District

Independent thoughts are needed in Congress. So are more doctors.

Washington has too many people trained to react politically and too few people trained to diagnose problems early.

That is why America needs a prevention-first healthcare platform:

Save the Hip

Not reaction. Prevention.

We will pay tens of thousands of dollars after someone falls and breaks a hip, but we hesitate to pay for the inexpensive intervention that could have prevented the fall in the first place.

That is not fiscal responsibility.
That is government stupidity.

And we can apply this thinking everywhere across CMS, HHS, and many other parts of government.

A broken hip after a certain age is often a kiss of death.

Families know it, Doctors know it, and Hospitals know it.

The question some people ask is: “Why doesn’t someone just buy a bathmat or a grab bar themselves?”

Because sometimes people need a little help.

There is a reason grab bars, non-slip surfaces, and fall-prevention systems exist throughout hospitals and healthcare facilities across America: prevention works.

If we know these systems reduce injuries inside hospitals, why would we ignore the same logic inside the homes of seniors?

“Save the Hip” means changing that mindset.

— Dr. Michael Goldstein
Republican Endorsed Candidate for Congress
Connecticut’s 4th Congressional District

Paid for by Goldstein for Congress