Elizabeth McCaughey
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Elizabeth Helen McCaughey (; née Peterken; born October 20, 1948), formerly known as Betsy McCaughey Ross, is an American politician who was the Lieutenant Governor of New York from 1995 to 1998, during the first term of Governor
George Pataki George Elmer Pataki (; born June 24, 1945) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 53rd governor of New York from 1995 to 2006. An attorney by profession, Pataki was elected mayor of his hometown of Peekskill, New York, and went on ...
. She unsuccessfully sought the Democratic Party nomination for governor after Pataki dropped her from his 1998 ticket, and she ended up on the ballot under the
Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...
line. In August 2016 the
Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...
presidential campaign President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese fu ...
announced that she had joined the campaign as an economic adviser. A historian by training, with a PhD from
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, McCaughey has, over the years, provided
conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
media commentary on US public policy affecting healthcare-related issues. Her 1993 attack on the Clinton healthcare plan was likely a major factor in the initially popular bill's defeat in Congress. Also, it brought her to the attention of Republican Pataki, who chose her as his nominee/running mate. In 2009, her criticisms of the
Affordable Care Act The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and colloquially known as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by Pres ...
, then a bill being debated in Congress again gained significant media attention in television and radio interviews, and it may have specifically inspired the "
death panel "Death panel" is a political term that originated during the 2009 debate about federal health care legislation to cover the uninsured in the United States. Sarah Palin, former Republican Governor of Alaska and Vice Presidential Candidate in 20 ...
" claim about the act. She has been a fellow at the conservative
Manhattan Institute The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research (renamed in 1981 from the International Center for Economic Policy Studies) is a conservative American think tank focused on domestic policy and urban affairs, established in Manhattan in 1978 by Anto ...
and Hudson Institute thinktanks and has written numerous articles and op-eds. She was a member of the boards of directors of medical equipment companies Genta (from 2001 to 2007) and Cantel Medical Corporation, but she resigned in 2009 to avoid the appearance of conflict of interest with her public advocacy against the Affordable Care Act. From 1995 until their divorce in 2000, she was married to business magnate
Wilbur Ross Wilbur Louis Ross Jr. (born November 28, 1937) is an American businessman who served as the 39th United States Secretary of Commerce from 2017 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party, Ross was previously chairman and chief executive officer ...
, who went on to serve as Secretary of Commerce during Donald Trump's presidency.


Early life, education, and family

McCaughey and her twin brother, William, were born in
Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...
to Ramona Peterken, and her husband Albert, a factory janitor. The family moved around the Northeastern United States for six years before it settled down in
Westport, Connecticut Westport is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, along the Long Island Sound within Connecticut's Gold Coast. It is northeast of New York City. The town had a population of 27,141 according to the 2020 U.S. Census. History ...
, where McCaughey's father did maintenance and later engineering work at a nail clipper factory. McCaughey recalled her parents' difficulty in affording medical treatment: "my brother was a serious asthmatic as a child. I remember my parents sitting at the kitchen table wondering if they could afford to take imto the hospital." McCaughey attended public schools in Westport through the 10th grade, spending much of her free time at the library. After receiving a scholarship, she transferred to a private Massachusetts boarding school, the Mary A. Burnham School, for her last two years of high school, rarely visiting home, then or during her college years. She received a scholarship to attend
Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely foll ...
, where she majored in history. She wrote her senior
thesis A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: ...
on
Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
and
Alexis de Tocqueville Alexis Charles Henri Clérel, comte de Tocqueville (; 29 July 180516 April 1859), colloquially known as Tocqueville (), was a French aristocrat, diplomat, political scientist, political philosopher and historian. He is best known for his wor ...
, won several fellowships, and received her BA, with distinction, in 1970. McCaughey went on to graduate school at Columbia University in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, earning her MA in 1972 and her PhD in
constitutional history Constitutional history is the area of historical study covering both written constitutions and uncodified constitutions, and became an academic discipline during the 19th century. ''The Oxford Companion to Law'' (1980) defined it as the study of the ...
in 1976. She won Columbia's Bancroft Dissertation Award in American History in 1976 and her dissertation was published by the prestigious
Columbia University Press Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City, and affiliated with Columbia University. It is currently directed by Jennifer Crewe (2014–present) and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fiel ...
in 1980, ''From Loyalist to Founding Father: The Political Odyssey of
William Samuel Johnson William Samuel Johnson (October 7, 1727 – November 14, 1819) was an American Founding Father and statesman. Before the Revolutionary War, he served as a militia lieutenant before being relieved following his rejection of his election to the Fi ...
''. She also contributed a chapter about Johnson to the 1979 book ''The American Revolution: Changing Perspectives'' by William M. Fowler and Wallace Coyle. While completing her PhD, McCaughey trained in the corporate banking department at
Chase Manhattan Bank JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., doing business as Chase Bank or often as Chase, is an American national bank headquartered in New York City, that constitutes the consumer and commercial banking subsidiary of the U.S. multinational banking and fi ...
, and she served as a
loan officer Loan officers evaluate, authorize, or recommend approval of loan applications for people and businesses. Most loan officers are employed by commercial banks, credit unions, mortgage companies, and related financial institutions. Mortgage loan offi ...
in the Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Division. She also took courses in accounting at Columbia's School of Business. McCaughey's father died in 1970 at the age of 60. Her mother, an alcoholic, died the next year of liver disease at the age of 42. In 1972, she married Thomas K. McCaughey, a
Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...
graduate she had met in college. He was then moving up as an
investment banker Investment banking pertains to certain activities of a financial services company or a corporate division that consist in advisory-based financial transactions on behalf of individuals, corporations, and governments. Traditionally associated with ...
. The McCaugheys separated in 1992 and divorced in 1994, with McCaughey and her ex-spouse sharing joint custody of their three daughters. In January 1993, she filed an affidavit in her divorce proceeding in which she said she had no annual earnings from employment during most of the 18 years of her marriage to Thomas, and she had never earned more than $20,000 per year except in 1990, when she "sold an idea to Fox television for a windfall once-in-a-lifetime sum of $75,000". She married wealthy investment banker and prominent Democratic Party fundraiser Wilbur Ross Jr. in December 1995. He filed for divorce in November 1998.


Academic work, 1977–1988

McCaughey taught history as a visiting assistant professor at
Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely foll ...
in 1977–1978 and was a lecturer in 1979–1980. She was an assistant professor at between 1981 and 1983, teaching two classes per year, both at
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
Between 1983 and 1984, she had a
National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...
postdoctoral fellowship A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to pu ...
. From 1986 to 1988, she served as a guest
curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...
at the
New-York Historical Society The New-York Historical Society is an American history museum and library in New York City, along Central Park West between 76th and 77th Streets, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The society was founded in 1804 as New York's first museum ...
and was responsible for the museum's exhibit commemorating the bicentennial of the US Constitution. She also authored a book, ''Government by Choice: Inventing the United States Constitution'', which cataloged the exhibit.


Policy positions and scholarship, 1989–1993

In the late 1980s, McCaughey briefly considered a career in TV news, but she opted instead for a position as a senior scholar at the
Center for the Study of the Presidency Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricit ...
, serving from 1989 to 1992. There, she wrote an article, book reviews, and a guest editorial for its journal, ''
Presidential Studies Quarterly ''Presidential Studies Quarterly'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed political science journal dedicated to the scholarly study of the presidency of the United States. It was established in 1971 as ''Center House Bulletin'', obtaining its current name i ...
(PSQ)'', and an op-ed in ''USA Today'' advocating reform of the Electoral College method of electing the president. She testified at a July 22, 1992, hearing before the
United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution is one of eight subcommittees within the Senate Judiciary Committee. The subcommittee was best known in the 1970s as the committee of Sam Ervin, whose investigations and lobbying — together wi ...
and helped produce a report suggesting
constitutional amendments A constitutional amendment is a modification of the constitution of a polity, organization or other type of entity. Amendments are often interwoven into the relevant sections of an existing constitution, directly altering the text. Conversely, t ...
to fix perceived flaws in the Electoral College. McCaughey also wrote op-ed columns that appeared in ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'', ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', and ''
USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...
'' in which she opposed plans involving local and state redistricting to comply with the
Voting Rights Act The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the civil rights movement ...
, and she criticized federal court-ordered
desegregation Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups, usually referring to races. Desegregation is typically measured by the index of dissimilarity, allowing researchers to determine whether desegregation efforts are having impact o ...
of schools in
Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...
and
New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
. She also supported the nomination of a federal judge,
Clarence Thomas Clarence Thomas (born June 23, 1948) is an American jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President George H. W. Bush to succeed Thurgood Marshall and has served since 1 ...
to the
United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
by arguing that he would judge cases there on their merits and not tend to interpret cases in a manner consistent with his conservative beliefs; She also supported a tobacco company in litigation before the Supreme Court and praised the 1992 '' Planned Parenthood v. Casey'' Supreme Court decision, restricting
abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pre ...
rights. In February 1993, the John M. Olin Foundation funded a fellowship at the
Manhattan Institute The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research (renamed in 1981 from the International Center for Economic Policy Studies) is a conservative American think tank focused on domestic policy and urban affairs, established in Manhattan in 1978 by Anto ...
, a conservative
think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...
, for McCaughey to write a book on race and the legal system to be titled ''Beyond Pluralism: Overcoming the Narcissism of Minor Differences''. McCaughey wrote op-eds over the next six months in ''The Wall Street Journal'' and ''USA Today'' in which she supported the 1993 selection of a jury from predominately-white, Republican, rural counties for the urban (Memphis)-located retrial of African American and Democratic US Representative
Harold Ford, Sr. Harold Eugene Ford Sr. (born May 20, 1945) is an American politician and Democratic former member of the United States House of Representatives representing the area of Memphis, Tennessee, for 11 terms—from 1975 until his retirement in 1997. H ...
, and praised the 1993 '' Shaw v. Reno'' Supreme Court decision, favoring five white voters who said their rights had been infringed upon by redistricting that had been done to comply with the
Voting Rights Act The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the civil rights movement ...
.


Healthcare reform, 1993–1994

On September 22, 1993, US President
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
delivered a nationally televised speech about his healthcare reform plan to a joint session of Congress. From September 28 to 30, 1993, First Lady
Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
, the architect of the
universal health care Universal health care (also called universal health coverage, universal coverage, or universal care) is a health care system in which all residents of a particular country or region are assured access to health care. It is generally organized ar ...
plan, testified about its details before five US congressional committees. The cost of providing insurance for the estimated 37 million people then uninsured was to be covered in part by new taxes on tobacco. On the last day of Hillary Clinton's testimony, ''The Wall Street Journal'' published an op-ed by McCaughey, who wrote that the 239-page draft legislation differed markedly from the White House's public statements and would have "devastating consequences". Citing words and phrases from the draft, she argued that the 77 percent of Americans then covered by insurance would see a downgrade in their policies, and most would not be able to keep their own physicians but be forced into price-controlled
health maintenance organizations In the United States, a health maintenance organization (HMO) is a medical insurance group that provides health services for a fixed annual fee. It is an organization that provides or arranges managed care for health insurance, self-funded hea ...
(HMOs), which would provide only the most basic care. According to McCaughey, the HMO plans would not pay for visits to specialists or for second opinions, and most physicians would be driven out of private practice. In late November 1993, the bill for the
Clinton health care plan of 1993 The Clinton health care plan was a 1993 healthcare reform package proposed by the administration of President Bill Clinton and closely associated with the chair of the task force devising the plan, First Lady of the United States Hillary Clinto ...
was introduced in the Congress and made publicly available. ''The Wall Street Journal'' then published an op-ed by McCaughey in which said she had pored over the entire bill and concluded that it had price controls that would cause
rationing Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one's allowed portion of the resources being distributed on a particular ...
, and the bill was dangerous. McCaughey expanded her op-eds into a five-page article titled "No Exit", which appeared as the cover story in ''
The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...
'' and was published a few days before President Clinton's 1994
State of the Union address The State of the Union Address (sometimes abbreviated to SOTU) is an annual message delivered by the president of the United States to a joint session of the United States Congress near the beginning of each calendar year on the current conditi ...
. An internal memo by tobacco company Philip Morris, dated March 1994, indicated that representatives of Philip Morris had collaborated with McCaughey when she was writing "No Exit": "Worked off-the-record with Manhattan and writer Betsy McCaughey as part of the input to the three-part exposé in The New Republic on what the Clinton plan means to you. The first part detailed specifics of the plan." (When the memo was discussed in a 2009 story in ''Rolling Stone'', McCaughey declined to comment.) McCaughey's "No Exit" article was quickly used by conservative officials and commentators seeking to discredit the Clinton plan. Senator Bob Dole, in the Republican Party response to the President's State of the Union, used some of McCaughey's arguments of fewer choices, lower quality, and more government control. Bill Kristol's Project for the Republican Future quickly launched television advertisements featuring quotes from McCaughey's two ''Wall Street Journal'' op-ed columns and her ''The New Republic'' article. ''
Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...
'' columnist
George Will George Frederick Will (born May 4, 1941) is an American libertarian-conservative political commentator and author. He writes regular columns for ''The Washington Post'' and provides commentary for NBC News and MSNBC. Gold, Hadas (May 8, 2017)." ...
used McCaughey's writings as a basis for predicting that the Clinton health plan would kill patients and make it illegal for patients to pay doctors directly for care, with 15-year jail terms for patients who tried to do so. The Clinton White House press office issued a response to McCaughey's "No Exit" article by arguing that it contained "numerous factual inaccuracies and misleading statements". McCaughey responded that her claims came "straight from the text of the bill". Supporters of the Clinton plan questioned McCaughey's claims, including her statements that "the law will prevent you from going outside the system to buy basic health coverage you think is better" and that "doctor can be paid only by the plan, not by you" by pointing to the text of the legislation such as Section 1003: "Nothing in this Act shall be construed as prohibiting ... An individual from purchasing any health care services." According to ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', the "No Exit" article, the White House response, and the ensuing television and radio interviews with McCaughey made her a star: "Her toothy good looks, body-conscious suits, Vassar BA and Columbia PhD reduced right-wingers to mush." The bill stalled and died in Congress in 1994, and the next year, Clinton was reduced to asking Congress for a series of small, incremental reforms to healthcare. The "No Exit" article won the National Magazine Award for excellence in the public interest. Andrew Sullivan, the editor of ''The New Republic'', later stated that he believed there were flaws in McCaughey's article, but he ran it "as a provocation to debate". In 2006, a new editor recanted the story. In 2009, ''
The Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. It was founded in 2008. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief from 2018 to 2021. In a 20 ...
'' called her "The Woman Who Killed Health Care".


New York Lieutenant Governorship, 1995–1998

Following the national attention McCaughey received in the 1990s healthcare legislation debate, Pataki, a first-term New York state senator who was running for governor, chose her as his running mate. Despite McCaughey's complete lack of experience as a political candidate or officeholder and the fact that Pataki did not personally know McCaughey, Pataki perceived that she was very popular among conservatives, who, at the time, were still suspicious of him and that her public image would make his longshot candidacy more appealing to independent and female voters. Regarding her status as a political rookie, McCaughey said, "Many New Yorkers see that as a plus." McCaughey said that she accepted the nomination by believing she would be Pataki's "point person on health policy". After winning the election, Pataki told ''The New York Times'', McCaughey would have "very real and significant responsibilities" as lieutenant governor. McCaughey was initially tasked by Pataki to work on education policy and on reducing New York's
Medicaid Medicaid in the United States is a federal and state program that helps with healthcare costs for some people with limited income and resources. Medicaid also offers benefits not normally covered by Medicare, including nursing home care and per ...
budget. By January 1995, McCaughey had produced a set of recommendations that required cost cutting by hospitals and nursing homes so that the poor did not have to bear the entire burden of balancing the state's Medicaid budget by a reduction of their benefits. However, McCaughey's recommendations were largely ignored. After Pataki refused to give McCaughey permission to conduct a study into child abuse, she did one anyway and publicly announced its results. McCaughey was publicly critical of the governor's proposed cuts to Medicaid and gave a
pro-choice Abortion-rights movements, also referred to as pro-choice movements, advocate for the right to have legal access to induced abortion services including elective abortion. They seek to represent and support women who wish to terminate their pr ...
speech without his advance permission. In March 1996, ''The New York Times'' reported that McCaughey was locked out of the governor's inner circle because she had violated the "unwritten rules" of the conventional lieutenant governor's role. Rather than following protocol as lieutenant governor by taking a seat with everyone else during Pataki's State of the State address to the legislature in 1996, McCaughey stood for the entire 56 min speech's length, further attracting attention to herself at her governor's expense. In the spring of 1997, Governor Pataki announced that McCaughey would not be his running mate when he ran for re-election in 1998. He later selected
New York State Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...
Justice
Mary Donohue Mary O'Connor Donohue (born March 22, 1947) is an American retired educator, attorney, politician and Judge of the New York Court of Claims and a former two-term Lieutenant Governor of New York. Donohue was first elected Lieutenant Governor in ...
to replace her. Though she had always voted Republican in presidential elections and taken conservative Republican policy positions, McCaughey suddenly switched her party affiliation to Democrat and soon announced plans to run for governor against Pataki. McCaughey was the early frontrunner for her new party's nomination process, in part because of her statewide name and face recognition and in part because of the financial support of her wealthy then-husband. During her campaign for governor, she was criticized for firing a succession of campaign aides and political advisers and possibly changing her core political beliefs in order to appear more electable to New York voters. As her opinion poll numbers sank, her husband took away more than half of the funds he had pledged to her campaign. McCaughey was defeated in the Democratic primary election by New York City Councilman Peter Vallone (who then lost the general election to Pataki, 54 percent to 33 percent). McCaughey had earlier received the nomination of the Liberal Party of New York for governor and stayed in the general election. McCaughey's campaign attracted little support, and she received only 1.65 percent of the general vote for governor. Following the election, she divorced and then sued her former husband alleging "$40 million fraud", claiming that he promised to fund her campaign unconditionally.


Life and career since leaving office

McCaughey has worked on patient advocacy and healthcare policy issues since leaving office in 1999. She was senior fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute beginning in 1999 and an adjunct senior fellow beginning in 2002. She was a member of the board of directors of Genta, a company focused on the delivery of innovative products for cancer treatment from 2001 to her resignation in October 2007. She was also a member of the board of directors of the Cantel Medical Corporation, a medical device manufacturer, from 2005 to her resignation in August 2009 to avoid the appearance a conflict of interest while she was engaged in advocacy on healthcare reform legislation. In 2004, she founded the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths (RID) in reaction to a rise in antibiotic resistant staphylococcus aureus and other hospital-borne infections. The non-profit RID is "devoted solely to providing safer, cleaner, hospital care". She remains the chair and representative of the organization. She has appeared on ''Fox News'', ''CNN'', and many radio shows to discuss her research and how to prevent infection deaths. Her organization's efforts have led to legislation in more than 25 states requiring hospitals to report infections.


Healthcare reform, 2007–2009


American Cancer Society

In August 2007, the American Cancer Society dedicated $15 million to a public awareness campaign on inadequate access to healthcare for the 47 million Americans not covered by insurance. It claimed that there would be a greater decline in cancer deaths if more cases of cancer were diagnosed in the early stages. The society noted that studies had shown that patients without insurance were more than twice as likely to have their cancer diagnosed in the late stages of the disease. One of the cancer society's commercials stated, "We're making progress, but it's not enough if people don't have access to the care that could save their lives." McCaughey criticized the campaign, saying that it should instead refocus on educating people about cancer prevention and detection. She argued that evidence had shown that the US had higher rates of cancer survival than countries with universal healthcare coverage because of shorter wait times for treatment, better availability of new drugs for therapy, and more frequent cancer screenings. She expanded her argument into a "Brief Analysis" published the following month by the
National Center for Policy Analysis The National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) was a non-profit American think tank whose goals were to develop and promote private alternatives to government regulation and control. Topics it addressed include reforms in health care, taxes, S ...
in which she maintained that the US was number one in the world in cancer care. Sources for her analysis included a paper from the
National Bureau of Economic Research The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is an American private nonprofit research organization "committed to undertaking and disseminating unbiased economic research among public policymakers, business professionals, and the academic c ...
, a non profit, non partisan research organization, and an article in the British medical journal '' Lancet Oncology'', which analyzed 2000–2002 cancer survival figures from Europe. The American Cancer Society responded by citing a study of nearly 600,000 cancer cases that concluded that compared to people with private insurance, uninsured patients in the US were 1.6 times more likely to die within five years of their diagnosis.


2009 stimulus bill

McCaughey published an op-ed on February 9, 2009, and claimed that the Obama administration's pending
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) (), nicknamed the Recovery Act, was a stimulus package enacted by the 111th U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in February 2009. Developed in response to the Gr ...
stimulus contained the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, hidden provisions that would harm the health of Americans as well as the healthcare sector of the economy. She argued that the bill would establish two powerful new bureaucracies: the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research. McCaughey said the National Coordinator would monitor patients' electronic medical records to ensure that doctors and hospitals treated patients in a way that "the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective" and that doctors and hospitals deviating from the government's "electronically delivered protocols" would be penalized. She said that the Federal Coordinating Council would be composed of appointed bureaucrats charged with a costcutting agenda that would slow the development of new medical products and drugs and ration healthcare for senior citizens. She opined that the bureaucrats would use a comparative effectiveness formula, which, in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, had resulted in a requirement that senior citizens go blind in one eye before the government would pay for a treatment to save the sight in the other eye. Critics claimed McCaughey's claims were distorted, pointing out that the National Coordinator was not new but had been created five years earlier by
George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
and that the 2009 legislation was not about limiting doctors' ability to prescribe treatments but instead establishing a system of electronic records to give physicians complete and accurate information their patients. FactCheck.org noted that comparative effectiveness research had been funded by the US government for years but agreed with McCaughey that there would be penalties for health providers that did not use the electronic records system. The effectiveness research council was a new initiative, as McCaughey had said. However, supporters of the stimulus bill provision said that research funded would provide additional evidence to guide treatment decisions and save lives and money by avoiding unnecessary, ineffective, or risky treatments. McCaughey's viewpoint was soon echoed and extended by conservative talk show host
Rush Limbaugh Rush Hudson Limbaugh III ( ; January 12, 1951 – February 17, 2021) was an American conservative political commentator who was the host of '' The Rush Limbaugh Show'', which first aired in 1984 and was nationally syndicated on AM and FM r ...
and multiple Fox News Channel broadcasters. Republican US Representative Charles Boustany Jr. of
Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
, a heart surgeon, added that he feared that comparative effectiveness research would be misused by federal bureaucrats to "ration care, to deny life-saving treatment to seniors and disabled people". Other conservatives agreed that the legislation could put the federal government in the middle of the doctor-patient relationship. The stimulus bill was passed with the healthcare-related provisions still included. McCaughey urged their repeal so that their potential impact could be studied further.


2009 healthcare reform bills

McCaughey opposed the America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 debated in Congress in 2009. She made allegations about certain provisions of the bills that provided for Medicare payments to physicians for end-of-life and living will counseling and about
Ezekiel Emanuel Ezekiel Jonathan "Zeke" Emanuel (born September 6, 1957) is an American oncologist, bioethicist and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. He is the current Vice Provost for Global Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania and chai ...
, then an adviser to the Obama administration's budget director and chairman of the
bioethics Bioethics is both a field of study and professional practice, interested in ethical issues related to health (primarily focused on the human, but also increasingly includes animal ethics), including those emerging from advances in biology, m ...
department at the National Institutes of Health. McCaughey's claims may have inspired Sarah Palin's more high-profile claims that the legislation would lead to so-called
death panel "Death panel" is a political term that originated during the 2009 debate about federal health care legislation to cover the uninsured in the United States. Sarah Palin, former Republican Governor of Alaska and Vice Presidential Candidate in 20 ...
s. The provisions in the legislation that McCaughey advocated against were removed from the bill before it became law. In July 2009, McCaughey claimed that a section in the pending healthcare legislation, "Advance Care Planning Consultation", actually prescribed "euthanasia for the elderly" because it included provisions that
would make it mandatory—absolutely require—that every five years people in Medicare have a required counseling session that will tell them how to end their life sooner nd inform them how todecline nutrition, how to decline being hydrated, how to go in to hospice care ... all to do what's in society's best interest or in your family's best interest and cut your life short.
McCaughey's choice of words and analysis were described by ''
The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
''
James Fallows James Mackenzie Fallows (born August 2, 1949) is an American writer and journalist. He is a former national correspondent for ''The Atlantic.'' His work has also appeared in '' Slate'', ''The New York Times Magazine'', ''The New York Review of Boo ...
as inaccurate and sensationalistic. Politifact responded that the end-of-life counseling was voluntary, calling McCaughey's claim a "ridiculous falsehood" and giving it their lowest accuracy rating, "pants on fire". Factcheck.org called the claims "nonsense" and stated that what that section of the bill would actually do is "require Medicare to pay for voluntary counseling sessions helping seniors to plan for end-of-life medical care, including designating a health care proxy, choosing a hospice and making decisions about life-sustaining treatment." During an appearance on ''
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
'' which aired on August 20, 2009, McCaughey repeated these assertions about the counselling sessions and referred to the Factcheck.org as "spot-check dot org", claiming they failed to adequately read the House health care bill. In a rebuttal, Factcheck.org stood by their analysis and provided further analysis, which led them to conclude that McCaughey had misinterpreted the bill. In August 2009,
WNYC WNYC is the trademark and a set of call letters shared by WNYC (AM) and WNYC-FM, a pair of nonprofit, noncommercial, public radio stations located in New York City. WNYC is owned by New York Public Radio (NYPR), a nonprofit organization that ...
's '' On the Media'' also addressed McCaughey's claims, concluding that the provision actually mandated that the federal government compensate "counseling sessions" on elder law, such as estate planning, "will writing and hospice care". McCaughey described Emanuel in a ''
New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...
'' opinion article as a "Deadly Doctor" who advocated healthcare rationing by age and disability. Factcheck.org said this was incorrect and that "Emanuel's meaning is being twisted ... he was talking about a philosophical trend, and ... writing about how to make the most ethical choices when forced to choose which patients get organ transplants or vaccines when supplies are limited." An article in ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'' magazine said that Emanuel "was only addressing extreme cases like organ donation, where there is an absolute scarcity of resources", and quoted Emanuel as saying: "My quotes were just being taken out of context." ''The New York Times'' noted that Emanuel had opposed the legalization of euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide when such proposals were being debated in the late 1990s. McCaughey resigned from the Board of Cantel Medical Corporation on August 20, 2009 "to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest during the national debate over healthcare reform", according to a press release by the company. Other reports claimed that she resigned after negative reactions to her performance on ''The Daily Show with Jon Stewart'' one day earlier. In an appearance on
MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and politi ...
's ''Morning Meeting'' on October 6, 2009, McCaughey advocated gradually extending the minimum age for Medicare coverage upward from 65 to 70 in order to keep the Medicare system solvent. In an August 7, 2012, opinion piece in ''The'' ''Wall Street Journal'', McCaughey described as "phony" an assertion that repealing the
Affordable Care Act The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and colloquially known as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by Pres ...
would increase federal deficits. In a September 15, 2013, opinion piece in the ''
New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...
'' entitled "Obamacare will question your sex life", McCaughey wrote:
"Are you sexually active? If so, with one partner, multiple partners or same-sex partners?" Be ready to answer those questions and more the next time you go to the doctor, whether it's the dermatologist or the cardiologist and no matter if the questions are unrelated to why you're seeking medical help. And you can thank the Obama health law.
Politifact rated this assertion as "Pants on Fire", and FactCheck.org also called it false. In an October 25, 2013, appearance on Fox News, McCaughey said that the Affordable Care Act would have the effect of "eviscerating Medicare". On her
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
feed and on television,Fox News video clip, via Media Matters
/ref> McCaughey stated that members of Congress and other government employees were granted a "special subsidy" and a "premium illegally arranged by Obama" under the Affordable Care Act. Factcheck.org, Politifact, and fact checkers at CNN all found that assertion to be false.


Electoral history


See also

*
List of female lieutenant governors in the United States As of January 18, 2023, there are 22 women currently serving (excluding acting capacity) as lieutenant governors in the United States. Overall, 118 women have served (including acting capacity). Women have been elected lieutenant governor from 4 ...


References


Bibliography

* ''Obama Health Law: What It Says and How to Overturn It'' (
Encounter Books Encounter Books is a book publisher in the United States known for publishing conservative authors. It was named for ''Encounter'', the now defunct literary magazine founded by Irving Kristol and Stephen Spender.
, 2010). * ''Beating Obamacare: Your Handbook for the New Healthcare Law'' (
Regnery Publishing Regnery Publishing is a politically conservative book publisher based in Washington, D.C. The company was founded by Henry Regnery in 1947, and is now a division of radio broadcaster Salem Media Group. It is led by President & Publisher Thomas ...
, 2013).


External links


Biographical resume of McCaughey
at Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths website. * * Chassie, Karen (ed.) ''Who's Who in America'', 2007 (61st ed.), New Providence: Marquis Who's Who, , p. 2961. {{DEFAULTSORT:McCaughey, Betsy 1948 births Living people American Episcopalians 21st-century American historians Columbia University alumni Columbia University faculty Healthcare reform in the United States Historians of the United States Lieutenant Governors of New York (state) New York (state) Democrats Politicians from Pittsburgh American twins Vassar College alumni Women in New York (state) politics New York (state) Republicans American women historians Historians from Pennsylvania 21st-century American women writers