I was so saddened by the passing last week of my dear friend Grace-Marie Turner. Not only was she a dear friend to me but to so many of us in the health care reform movement. She played such a major role in the battle to reform our health care system in a way that empowered patients and doctors and not the federal government. She founded the highly successful Galen Institute 30 years ago and ran the important health care Reform Coalition. Grace-Marie was a fighter on behalf of all of us for so many of the positive reforms that we have worked on and continue to work for.
I first met Grace-Marie 1992, shortly after I had arrived from Canada to run the Pacific Research Institute. At the Fraser Institute where I was Assistant Director, we had begun work on educating Canadians on the growing disastrous effects of Canada’s single payer health care system. On arriving at PRI, I decided that health care was going to be a major policy focus, including educating Americans on why Canada’s Medicare for All system would be a disaster for this country.
A new friend was a research analyst at San Francisco-based Montgomery Securities. She had hired Grace-Marie to undertake a study on potential health-care policy reforms that would lead to affordable, accessible, quality health care for all in the U.S. Knowing my interest in the issue, she introduced Grace-Marie to me as she knew we would be kindred spirits in this fight for health care freedom. That was the beginning of a long and wonderful friendship and a collaborator on health care policy over many years.
We were engaged in so many battles from single payer to the ACA to protecting the pharmaceutical industry from price controls which would have a negative impact on research and development of new treatments that extend the lives of so many.
Grace-Marie was a fighter for market-based health care reform right up until her major brain surgery last fall. Several of us had worked with her over several months on her “Big Ideas” project which was designed to educate members of Congress on ideas that were easy to understand and articulate to the average person
on how to ensure the survival and growth of our health care system. Called “An American Renaissance in the Care of Health”, Grace-Marie in her usual way of getting things done quickly and efficiently, ran around the halls of Congress distributing the small, laminated pocket card in key members’ offices. This was just before her surgery and the upcoming election. We were chatting about how, in advance of the upcoming election, this had to be done. It came as such a shock that she had undergone emergency surgery soon after. This project was a passion of hers and she did an incredible job right up until the end.
We worked together on many projects over the years including a very important one a couple of years ago where we sponsored focus groups to find the views of the average American on the role of the drug industry and its impact on the lives of all of us. It was highly successful, generated a lot of media coverage, and we had interviews with legislators and staffers on the findings which were very positive.
My book The World’s Medicine Chest: How America Achieved Pharmaceutical Supremacy and How To Keep It was released in February of this year. While Grace-Marie’s health was failing when I completed the manuscript late last year, I acknowledged her great help and advice she gave me as I wrote the book and throughout my career. I only wish she were able to see it.
Grace-Marie was always an optimist, friendly and polite to friends and foes, and a breath of fresh air when things seemed dark in the health care reform debate.
She was an exceptional person or as my mentor Milton Friedman used to say about outstanding people--“A Great Woman”. She cannot be replaced but we can keep her and her ideas in our hearts and minds as we soldier on in the health care reform debates. We all miss you, Grace-Marie. Rest in peace dear friend and fighter for health care freedom on behalf of all of us in the movement. Cheers, Sally
Sally C. Pipes, President, CEO, and Thomas W. Smith Fellow in Health Care Policy at PRI.
